fassi merchants come to moroccans in europe

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MOROCCANS IN EUROPE

FASSI MERCHANTS COME TO

MANCHESTER

KHALID BEKKAOUI

FASSI MERCHANTS COME TO

MANCHESTER

BORDER CROSSING AND DIASPORIC

CONSCIOUSNESS

Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre University Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah

Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences

http://books.google.com/books?id=EpIMAAAAYAAJ&q=interdisciplinary+history+immigrants&dq=interdisciplinary+history+immigrants&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4ehBU_rKFrLb7AbvuIHwBw&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA


MOROCCANS IN EUROPE ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

FASSI MERCHANTS COME TO MANCHESTER

BORDER CROSSING AND CONSTRUCTION OF

DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS

KHALID BEKKAOUI

Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre

UNIVERSITY SIDI MOHAMMED BEN

ABDALLAH

Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences

2016


FASSI MERCHANTS COME TO MANCHESTER

BORDER CROSSING AND CONSTRUCTION OF DIASPORIC

CONSCIOUSNESS

Khalid Bekkaoui

Published by

The Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre

Legal Permission: 2016MO1814

ISBN: 978-9954-37-682-9

Copyright ©: Khalid Bekkaoui, 2016





i

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations, Charts and Archival Sources iv

INTRODUCTION 1

PART I: MOROCCANS OF MANCHESTER: BORDER CROSSING AND DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS 13

1.Anglo-Moroccan Trade 13

2.Early Moroccan Commercial Encounters

With Britain 16

3.Moroccan Tujar: Crossing and Dwelling 29

4.Bringing Islam to Manchester 43

5.Moroccan Views of Manchester 45

6.The Moroccans in Manchester: Fashioning

New Identities 46

7.Predicaments of Exile in Foreign Lands 58

8.Moroccan Manchester Merchants and British

Women 62

9. Moorish Women in Manchester Diaspora 70

10. How English Tea Became Morocco’s

National Beverage 76





http://books.google.com/books?id=pO_ztPTc-V0C&pg=PA231&dq=%22crossing+and%22+%22Global+Flows%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4V9EU86WJKrS0QXM94DQCg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ

ii

11.The Last Moorish Merchants in Manchester 82

12.Farewell Manchester: The Benjellouns

Return to Fez 84

13.New Routes, New Experiences 94

CONCLUSION 101

PART II: ARCHIVAL SOURCES

1. Moroccans of Manchester 103

2. Picturesque Moroccan Colony Leaves

Manchester 110

3. Moroccans Enjoy the Manchester Turkish

Bath 113

4. Aaron Afriat Applies for British Citizenship,

1874 117

5. Mohammed Mustafa-Ducaly 120

6.A Dishonest Servant Girl 125

7. A Moorish Merchant and Gladstone 125

8. Benani and Benjeloun at Court 126

9. A Black Servant Girl, From Taroudant

to Manchester 128

10. Business Correspondence with

Manchester 129

11.Moorish Lady’s Death 131

iii

12.Manchester Trade: Letter from Hamed

Boayed 132

13.The First Moroccan Failure in Manchester 133

14.A Sensational Abduction: A Moor

and an English Girl 134

15.The Mosque Marriage: Clara Casey

Tells Her Story 136

16.Married to A Moor 137

17. The Last of the Moors 139

18. Kenza Laghzaoui in America 139

BIBLIOGRAPHY 145

iv

Acknowledgments

The writing and publication of this book has met with the

support of many friends, colleagues and institutions. First of

all I would like to thank Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah

University for its support and sponsoring of this publication.

My indebtedness also goes to Dr Samir Bouzouita for

having generously provided me with the archival material I

have printed in the Arabic section.

My colleagues Peter Boller and Sadik Rddad carefully

read through the draft of this book. They corrected a number

of errors and offered insightful comments and suggestions.

I am equally delighted to acknowledge the informative

conversations with my friend and colleague Mohammed Ben

Abdeljali on rayd teapots and Fassi merchants in Europe.

A Fulbright grant allowed me to conduct research in the

USA in March-May 2015 and I would like to record my deep

gratitude to the Moroccan American Commission in Rabat. I

have worked at Harvard University Library in Boston and the

Library of Bridgwater State University. The staff of these

libraries was extremely kind and helpful. My friend and

colleague Dr Jabbar Al-Obaidi made my stay in Bridgewater

a very memorable experience.

During previous visits to London I worked at the National

Archive and the British Library. I hereby express my cordial

thanks to the staff of these libraries for their assistance and

friendliness.

https://twitter.com/AlJalobaidi

v

List of Illustrations, Charts and Archival Sources

1. Richard Wright teapot and tray 1

2. Moroccan male and female performers in England,

1850s 4

3. Moroccan Acrobats at the London Victoria Theatre,

1843 5

4. Zubeir Skirej, studied at the School of Military

Engineering, Chatham 8

5. Muhammad Al Gabbas, was appointed Minister

of War 8

6. Moroccan Physician in London, 1846 9

7. Total value of imports to Morocco 13

8. Quantity and value of Manchester goods imported into

Morocco 14

9. King George VI and Queen consort Greet Moroccan

Merchant in England Abdel Hadji, March 1939 15

10. Moroccan peddler in London, 1800s 28

11. Moroccan Jewish peddler in London, 1850s 28

12. Abdrahman Hajji, Moroccan merchant in London 30

13. Taib Bengelun, Shipping Merchant, 1926 33

14. Moroccan Manchester merchants 38

15. Fassi Shipping Merchants in Manchester, 1926 38

16. Deposition of Witness concerning the death of

Absalom Ben Abdallah 40

17. Certificate of Naturalization for Hadji

Elarbi Guesus 52

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_consorts

vi

18. Census 1911 54

19. Census 1911 55

20. List of Manchester Moroccans who naturalized

British 58

21. Rusholme, Manchester, 1904 60

22. Abdelmaged Tazzi and Meloka, his Turkish

spouse, born in Constantinople 63

23. Hadge Gamoon and Taleb Lazrak and their

Egyptian spouses 63

24. Miss Violet Cameron, a Manchester actress, wife

of Moroccan businessman David Bensuade 66

25. Wedding Presided by Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam

at Liverpool Mosque,1903 68

26. Miss Clara Casey 68

27. Elghalya Benabud and Zorah Bengelum sail

back home on board the Arabia, 19 December 1914 72

28. Zahra Bent Omar Tazzi sails from London to

Casablanca on board Ship Ranpura, 19 March 1926 72

29. Elarbi Bengelun, his wife and children sail back

home on board the Viceroy of India, 13 April 1935 72

30. British domestic servants in Moroccan households 73

31. A wealthy Fassi lady uses Manchester tea

utensils to make tea 79

32. Wealthy Moroccans posing before Manchester tea

paraphernalia 79

33. Abdelmajid Benjelloun 87

34. Bengelun, his wife and child sail from London to

Casablanca , 8 October 1903 87

vii

35. Bengelun and his son arrive in London,

18 June 1926 88

36. Bengelun and his son Abdelmajid arrive in

London, 15 August 1935 88

37. Mohamed, Omar, and Abdelmajid Bengelun sail

back to Tangier, 14 August 1936 89

38. Mohammed Laghzaoui, 1949 92

39. Marriage Certificate of Hadji Elarbi Guesus and

Alice Agnes, 1886 94

40. Birth Certificate of Randolphus Guesus, 1891 95

41. Hadji Elarbi Guesus’ Oath of Allegiance 95

42. Sidi Mohamed Ali Barada 100

43. Moorish Arch built on the Liverpool Manchester

Railway, 1830 101

44. Mogadore Market where Manchester goods

were sold 112

45. Trademark of a Moroccan merchant based in

Manchester 112

46. Hammam on Jermyn Street, Manchester 114

47. Hammam on Jermyn Street, Manchester 114

48. Advertising poster for the Manchester Hammam 116

49. Aaron Afriat’s Application for British

Citizenship, 1874 118

50. Sketch of a coffeepot with Arabic inscription

and the name of Aaron Afriat 119

51. Cenus of Aaron Afriat 119

52. Taleb Benjelun: One of the Early Moroccan

Merchants to Settle in Manchester 123

53. Diplomatic Mission for Moorish Merchants of

Manchester 124

viii

54. Clara Casey: Bride of Mohamed Ben Belkassem 138

55.Laghzaoui Family in America 140

56.Arrival of Mohamed and Kinza Laghzaoui and

their children to New York in June 1957 142

57. Correspondence making reference to Moroccan

traders based in Manchester 144

1

INTRODUCTION

In the old medina of Fez, the terms manishisteer and

ride or rite, a corruption of Wright, are still invoked by

silverware dealers to refer to very good quality tea-utensils.

Manishisteer is used for siniya tea-tray and ride or rite for

barrad, teapot. The entry of these terms in the Fassi

commercial vocabulary dates back to the early twentieth

century when the Fassi merchant community of Manchester

exported to Moroccan markets silverware goods bearing the

hallmark of Richard Wright of Manchester in Arabic and

English.

1. Richard Wright teapot and tray

Moroccan Muslim and Jewish traders, predominantly

from Fez, relocated to Manchester in the 1830s. This was

made possible thanks to a series of treaties between Morocco

and Britain granting each other’s subjects the right to travel

and conduct trade in the other country. In his negotiation of a

Fassi Merchants Come to Manchester

2

Treaty of Peace and Commerce with William Petticrew in

1751, Sultan Moulay Abdellah insisted that “his Subjects,

whether Jewish or Muslim, should not be prohibited from

living and working in Gibraltar, as they wished to do so.”1 A

clause in the treaty signed in Fez on 28 July 1760, renewed in

1791, 1801 and 1824, guaranteed the right of Moroccan

merchants to trade in Britain. It states:

if any subject of the Emperor of Fez and Morocco

desires to transport commodities from the

dominions of the King of Great Britain, he shall

be permitted to do it, without paying greater

duties or impositions than other nations pay.2

On the socio-cultural level, settling and conducting

commerce in Christian lands represent profound shifts in pre-

colonial Morocco. Travelling for commercial reasons from

Dar al Islam to Dar al Kufr, the land of unbelivers, ceased to

be considered a religiously stigmatized activity in the late

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In addition to

Muslim merchants, perfomers from spiritual confraternities

and students travelled and settled in Europe.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Moroccan

Sufi brotherhood of the zawiyyas of Aissawiyya and Hmadu

U Mussa began sending their adepts to Europe to perform in

circuses, popular showplaces and music halls, impressing

audiences with their amazing and sophisticated acrobatic

1P. G. Rogers, A History of Anglo-Moroccan Relations to

1900 (London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1971), p. 96. 2 A Complete Collection of the Treaties and Conventions at

Present, vol. 2 (London: 1820), p. 105.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-anglo-moroccan-relations-to-1900/oclc/5989736&referer=brief_results



3

feats in Spain, France, and Germany. As early as 1843,

Moroccan Sufi performers gave their first show in Britain at

the London Victoria Theatre. The Illustrated London News

writes under the title “The Morocco Arabs at the Victoria

Theatre,” that their “feats are nightly received with shouts of

surprised delight. The performers … all have extraordinary

suppleness of frame and limb. Their feats include leaps akin

to flying, national dances, and evolutions of the ‘impossible’

order.”1

Five years later, in the summer of 1848, the troupe was

contracted to perform in London at the Royal Britannia

Saloon. The show was an unprecedented success:

“Unbounded applause and crowded houses every evening to

greet the wonders of the world, the Bedouin Arabs and

Morocco Arabians.”2 In November-December, 1856, after

successful shows in Paris, “The Bedouin Arabs from

Morocco,” as they now had come to be ethnically labelled,

performed at the London Royal Lyceum Theatre, “on which

occasion they achieved a perfect triumph.”3 Following their

success, they returned in 1857 to England to perform with

Macarte’s Cirque Imperial. To promote the show, the

proprietor of the Circus, Mrs. Macarte, organized a street

procession in Ipswich with Moorish acrobats adorned in their

exotic native costumes and mounted on camels.

Travelling and performing in Europe, Ouled Hmadu

Moussa became acquainted with foreign customs, traditions,

and languages. A Moroccan acrobat, a certain Hadj Abdallah,

1 Illustrated London News, 60 (24 June 1843), p. 439.

2 Lloyd’s Weekly London Newspaper, 6 August 1848.

3 The Era, 7 December, 1856.


4

spoke English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish,

Moghrebbin Arabic, and Shilha. “I know London

well,” he said; “I have an engagement to bring my

troupe of acrobats to the Canterbury and the Oxford.

I am a member of a Masonic Lodge in

Camberwell.”1

2. Moroccan male and female performers in

England, 1850s

1 Samuel Levy Bensusan, Morocco (London: A. and C.

Black, 1904), p. 115.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22London+%3A+A.+and+C.+Black%22


https://archive.org/search.php?query=date:1904


5

3. Moroccan Acrobats at the London Victoria Theatre,

1843


6

Moroccan travellers’ mastery of foreign languages

and knowledge of European geography indicate that they

both mixed with foreign communities and enjoyed

sightseeing.

They were noted for their strict adherence to their

Islamic faith and rituals, yet, because of exposure to foreign

life and culture, they inevitably became acculturated

and “readily take on external features of the different

culture.”1

Another early Moroccan encounter with Europe is a

group of fifteen young students sent by Moulay Hassan to

study in Europe.2 Having studied foreign languages and

accounting for two years (1873-1875) in Tangier, the students

were divided into groups of three, and each group was sent to

a European country: Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and

Britain. The group for Britain, was composed of Muhammad

Al Gabbas, Idriss ben Abd al-Wahed al-Fasi, and Zubeir

Skirej. They joined the School of Military Engineering at

Chatham.

British Consul General, Drummond Hay, who was very

enthusistic about Moulay Hassan’s modernization

programme, wrote in support of the Sultan’s initiative:

1 Ferdinand Ossendowski, The Fire of Desert Folk: The

Account of a Journey through Morocco (New York: E.P. Dutton &

Co. 1926), p. 280. 2 The project was first developped by Moulay Abderrahman

(1822-1859) who was desirous of sending Moroccan students to

study in Europe but his project was confronted with the opposition

from the ulama and his ministers who warned againt exposure to

Europe. The students were sent to Egypt.


7

The young Sultan is evidently desirous of

introducing reforms and improvements in his

dominions; but he has a very difficult task as he is

surrounded by ignorant and fanatical advisers … I

trust that every reasonable facility may be

afforded by Her Majesty’s Government to the

young Sovereign, to aid him in moving forward

in the path of reform.1

In his autobiography, Skirej writes proudly that, having

gained their diplomas after three years of study at Chatham,

the young Moroccans were “favoured with an audience by

her Majesty Queen Victoria.”2

1 Rogers, A History of Anglo-Moroccan Relations, pp. 185-

86. FO99/169. 2 “Mudakirat Zubayr Skiraj: Wathiqa Jadida Hawla al

Baathat at-Tulabiya ila Uruba,” Majallat Dar Niyaba (1985), pp.

28-32. On Moroccan students in Europe, see Mohamed Bargach,

Une famille au coeur de l’histoire (Editions maghrébines, 1998).


https://www.google.co.ma/search?hl=fr&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Mohamed+Bargach%22


8

4. Zubeir Skirej, studied at the School of Military

Engineering, Chatham

5. Muhammad Al Gabbas, was appointed Minister

of War


9

It is also significant to mention that in January 1846,

the Sultan’s physician sailed to London for thr purpose of

“supplying himself with European medicines.” He is

described as

about 50 years of age, is a man of much intelligence,

and is well acquainted with the resources of

European science; having cultivated the friendship

of all the distinguished Europeans who

visited Barbary, and from whom he has received

information touching new discoveries and

improvements.1

6. Moroccan Physician in London, 1846

1 Illustrated London News, 26 January 1846.


10

The Morocan physician freely shared his medical

knowledge with his British counterparts, which they found to

be “full of interest, and contains facts, which, if widely

promulgated, would have an important influence on medical

science.” A report in the Illustrated London News1 notes that

“in certain maladies, the mode of treatment prescribed by

them is successful when the European methods fall” and goes

on to remind readers that “the most precious European

medicines of the present day have been derived from the

information given by savages.”

Being intent on reforming the health system Mawlay al-

Hassan decided in 1876 to send five young students to

Gibraltar to gain some training in medicine before sending

them to Britain to get qualified as doctors. On this issue,

Musa ben Ahmed, the Sultan chamberlain, wrote to

Drummond Hay:

As for the medical students, His Majesty has

given them permission to make the journey to

gain all the knowledge they need and to watch

doctors treating their patients. Therefore, show us

where they should go for this, how they should

travel, and what formalities need to be

completed.2

By the time the Moroccan youth arrived in Gibraltar to

begin their medical training, Hajj Mohammed Zbidi was in

1 Illustrated London News, 26 January 1846.

2 Khalid Ben Srhir, Britain and Morocco during the

Embassy of John Drummond Hay, 1845-1886 (London: Frank

Cass, 2005), p. 257.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/britain-and-morocco-during-the-embassy-of-john-drummond-hay-1845-1886/oclc/56528123&referer=brief_results



11

Britain carrying out an ambassadorial mission in the

company of his secretary Ibin Driss Jaaydi. Jaaydi records

that during his tourist visit to Crystal Palace, he was

approached by three men dressed in Christian clothes who

greeted him in Arabic. Jaaydi enquired about their place of

origin and learnt that one of them was from Marrakesh and

the others from Sus. On inquiring about their business in

England, they replied that fate had guided them there.1

Clearly, the initiative of the Fassi merchants to travel

and conduct trade in Manchester should be considered as part

of a reconfiguration of the encounter between Islam and

Christendom. Britain was no longer to be seen as Dar al

Harb, dreaded and avoided. Rather it was a place for

economic opportunities, political missions, entertainment and

sight-seeing, encountering a different culture and civilization,

acquiring new commercial techniques and technological

knowledge, and discovering wonderful innovations.

Fassi merchants’ travel and settlement in the land of the

Christians is in itself indicative of deep transformations in

Moroccan society and heralds the emergence of a new socio-

economic order. Business and religion had become re-defined

and reconfigured in such a way so as to allow Muslim

merchants to invest money made from the classical Islamic

trade routes of North Africa and trans-Saharan to enter the

world of capitalist market economy and global commerce.

The present book tries to shed some light on Moroccan

merchants of Manchester, on how immigration and foreign

1Idriss Jaaydi Slaoui, Ithaf an Akhbar bi Gharaibi al Akhbar,

ed. Az al Maghrib Maaninu (Abudabi: Dar Souadi Linashr wa

Tawzia, 2004), p. 297.


12

commerce have transformed them into a cosmopolitan elite,

on the participation of Moroccan women in such an

enterprise, and on how foreign trade and travel impacted

Moroccan culture and society during the nineteenth and first

half of the twentieth centuries.


13

PART I: MOROCCANS OF

MANCHESTER: BORDER CROSSING

AND DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS

1. ANGLO-MOROCCAN TRADE

In the late 18th

and early 19th

centuries, trade between

Morocco and Britain increased substantially. The

commodities imported into Morocco were mainly silverware,

textile goods, Chinese tea, sugar, spices, coffee, pepper, iron,

hardware, earthenware, glassware, saltpetre, and candles.

Moroccan main exports to Britain, on the other hand,

included grains, dates, honey, almonds, gums, oils, beeswax,

wool, maize, hides, oil, leeches, ostrich feathers, slippers

peas, and beans.

Year Total Value (£) From United Kingdom

1861 998,458 797,623

1862 1,198,729 717,398

1863 1,024,181 813,538

7. Total value of imports to Morocco

Most of this trade was conducted with the city of

Manchester. A report in 1865 states that “Thirty thousand

pounds’ worth of Manchester cottons are absorbed annually

in Rabat and Salli …. Sugar to the value of 36,710 came in

during the year... Candles to the value of 7,206 comes next,






14

and tea to the value of 5,942.”1 In 1881, Morocco imported

16 million yards of Lancashire cloth. By 1900 the figure

increased to 50 million.2

Year Quantity in bales Value (£)

1861 9,878 343,868

1862 8,825 379,029

1863 7,946 479,292

8. Quantity and value of Manchester goods imported

into Morocco3

The goods arrived at the port of Tangier and were

transported on mules, donkeys, and camels to various cities in

the interior. Caravans laden with Manchester goods reached

as far as Timbuktu. Shops, stalls and markets in major

Moroccan cities were glutted with Manchester goods. Walter

Harris notes that in Tangier “Manchester goods fill up the

little bandbox shops.”4 In Salé, Frances Macnab observes,

“there is a large covered market where nothing but

1 Frances Macnab, A Ride in Morocco Among Believers and

Traders (London: Edward Arnold, 1902), p. 163. 2 Arthur Redford, Manchester Merchants and Foreign Trade

1850-1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1956), vol.

2, p. 68. 3 Reports from Her Majesty’s Consuls on the Manufactures,

Commerce (London: Harrison and Son, 1865), vol. 3, p. 260. 4 Walter Harris, The Land of an African Sultan: Travels

in Morocco (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, &

Rivington, 1889), p. 13.

http://books.google.com/books?id=-M1fFKK4jAwC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=%22Manchester+goods%22+Morocco&source=bl&ots=iKE-gKCMJW&sig=iR39Z-Vj_s4nwu8ppmd3EwnhP38&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=Y233UvmSH8ec0QWT6IGgAg&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA



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Manchester goods are sold.”1 Háj Mohammed Et-Tájir’s

store in Fez was “packed with valuable cloths, Manchester

goods, silk, etc.” In Chefchaouen, “The Jewish merchants

have a fandak of their own in the town, where they sell

principally Manchester goods,” and, in El Ksar there were

“eighty-five shops selling Manchester goods.”2 Henry

Dugard affirms that wealthy Moroccans use mainly goods

imported from Manchester: carpets, mural fabrics, tea

utensils and, perfume burners.3

9. King George VI and Queen consort greet Moroccan

merchant in England Abdel Hadji, March 1939

1 Frances Macnab, A Ride in Morocco, p. 157.

2 Budgett Meakin, The Land of the Moors: A Comprehensive

Description (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1901), pp.

319 and 336. 3 Henry Dugard, Le Maroc de 1919 (Paris: Payot, 1919), p.

245.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_consorts

http://books.google.co.ma/books?id=L3UcAAAAMAAJ&q=%22%E2%80%9Ceighty-five+shops+selling+Manchester+goods%E2%80%9D&dq=%22%E2%80%9Ceighty-five+shops+selling+Manchester+goods%E2%80%9D&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=gC4zU6_7GLOg7AbqjIC4Dg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA


https://www.google.co.ma/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flemarocde191900duga%2Flemarocde191900duga_djvu.txt&ei=YbH8UrbeJqya1AXHpIGQAw&usg=AFQjCNHza3g43jEhXn5k_v3sS7HaXiXeEw&sig2=Nc7YJkWaOe1PP3xGCtmWtg


16

The Moroccan Manchester trade was initially

monopolized and controlled by British agents and middlemen

based in London, Manchester, and Gibraltar. Moroccan

merchants decided to partake in this growing and lucrative

trade as early as 1830’s. Some of them travelled to London,

Liverpool, and Manchester to take part in the commercial

exchange between the English metropolis and their country.

2. EARLY MOROCCAN COMMERCIAL ENCOUNTERS WITH BRITAIN

Moroccan commercial ties with Britain dates back to

the mid-sixteenth century. In 1551, a merchant ship called the

Lion sailed from Portsmouth on the first commercial voyage

between the two countries. The cargo consisted of “good

quantitie of linnen and woollen cloth, corall, amber, let, and

divers other things well accepted of the Moores.”

Interestingly, the letter reporting this voyage refers to two

Moroccans who boarded the Lion to be conveyed back home.

And we learn that “there were two Moores, being noblemen,

whereof one was of the Kings blood, conuayed by the said

Master Thomas Windham into their Countrey out of

England.”1 We can safely surmise that their business in

England was of commercial nature.

In 1600, the Sa‘adian Sultan, Ahmed Al Mansur (1578-

1603), dispatched Abd al-Wahad al-Anuri as his ambassador

to Queen Elizabeth on a mission to propose a military

alliance between Morocco and England as well to conduct

1 See Thomas S. Willan, Studies in Elizabethan Foreign

Trade (Manchester: University Press, 1959), pp. 96-97.


17

trade. Al-Nouri was accompanied by al Hage Moussa and

al-Hage Bahmed, an interpreter, and a certain Abd el-Dodar.

They arrived at St. Ives on the evening of January 12, 1589.

The Moorish delegation frequently visited the London

markets:

During their half year’s abode in London, they used

all subtlety and diligence to know the prises,

weights, measures and all kindes of differences to

such commodities, as either their country sent hither

or England transported thither. They carried with

them all sortes of English weights, measures and

samples of commodities.1

Their strict observance of Islamic rituals was also

noted: “They killed all their own meat within their house, as

sheep, lambs, poultry and such like, and they turn their faces

eastward when they kill anything. They use beads and pray to

saints.”

The presence of the Moorish visitors in London must

have been conspicuously visible. They stayed in London for

six months, leading a very active life. They visited places,

such as Hampton Court, and London markets, and were

invited to attend national events such as the Queen’s

coronation day at Whitehall. We are told that for that

occasion “a speciale place was builded onley for them near to

the Parke door, to beholde that dayes triumph.” A great

number of Londoners must have met the exotic visitors from

Barbary.

1 Henry de Castries, Les Sources Inédites de l’Histoire du

Maroc, vol. II (Paris: Editions Ernest Leroux, 1925), p. 203.


18

After their return home, reports state that English

merchants regularly supplied the Saidian Sultan Ahmed Al

Mansour with “necessaries and furnitures for his own use …

and sundrie merchandize,” including the “transportation of

a coach and bedd for the same late King.”1

In 1711, Moulay Ismail sent Bentura de Zari, an

Armenian Christian, to the court of Queen Anne. In a letter in

January 1713, Moulay Ismail requested the Queen “to give to

our Christian servant Bentura the aforementioned his due,”

explaining that he had authorized him “to reside in the city of

London to fulfil for us any purposes of ours.”2

Bentura was invested with full authority to negotiate

“anything relating to a good Correspondence of Trade or

Otherwise.”3 He resided in England from 1711 to 1715. He

died in London and was buried in Westminster-abbey at the

King’s charge.

In the early 18th

century, Moors were common visitors

to Britain. In 1714 Simon Ockley met “the Moors

themselves” in London and asked them about the meaning of

a word he was translating.4 In 1725, John Windus writes that

1Ibid., p. 237.

2 Rogers, History of Anglo-Moroccan Relations, p. 37. See

also Gerald MacLean and Nabil Matar, Britain and the Islamic

world, 1558-1713 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p.187. 3Ibid., p. 182.

4 Nabil Matar, “Britons and Muslims in the Early Modern

Period: From Prejudice to (a Theory of) Toleration,” in Maleiha

Malik, ed., Anti-Muslim Prejudice: Past and Present (London:

Routledge, 2010), p. 23.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/britain-and-the-islamic-world-1558-1713/oclc/690088062&referer=brief_results



19

“we have been pretty well accustomed to see its [Morocco]

Natives in our Streets.”1

In October, 1762, Sidi Mohammed sent El Hadj Abdel

Kader Hodiel as his ambassador to London to purchase arms

and ammunition. Two years later, Hodiel was still in London

at his residence in Panton Square Haymarket. In February

1764, his house was attacked by a mob:

A man, having a claim for debt against a female

servant of the ambassador for Morocco who resided

in Panton Square, Haymarket, collected a mob,

declaring that the woman was his wife, detained for

unlawful purposes. The ambassador’s windows were

pelted with dirt and stones, and all the furniture

destroyed. The ambassador and his retinue defended

the first floor with drawn sabres, and were pelted

with the legs of chairs, till a company of the Guards

arrived and dispersed the irrational mob.2

The house was so damaged that the ambassador and his

retinue had to move to another residence at Hammersmith. A

guard remained stationed at the house during its reparation.3

Learning of the incident, King George III ordered “a

Reward of One Hundred Pounds to such Person or Persons,

who shall apprehend the said Mathew Delohanty and bring

him before any one of His Majesty’s Justice.”4

1John Windus, preface, A Journey to Mequinez (Dublin: 1725).

2 All The Year Round, June 29 to December 7, 1867, vol. 18 p.

374. 3 London Evening Post, 16 February 1764, 18 February, 1764.

4 London Gazette, 6 March 1764.


20

The Earl of Halifax sent “a most civil and obliging

Letter … to the Morocco Ambassador …expressing greatest

Concern from for the Insult and Outrage committed upon his

Person and Family.”1

The instigator and the main rioters were eventually

arrested and confined to Newgate. It was discovered that the

real reason for the incident was that one of the female

domestics of the ambassador had eloped with a lover. Her

husband found her in a public house and dealt harshly with

her. He sent his servants to release her and took her under his

protection. The angry husband took revenge by spreading the

rumour that the Moorish ambassador was exploiting his wife

for lustful purposes.

The ambassador’s secretary and five servants appeared

at court and “were sworn on the Alcoran … by an

interpreter.”2 They kissed the sacred book three times and on

each time they put it on the top of their heads.

Upon the homeward departure of the Moroccan envoy,

King George III sent a letter dated 25 May 1764 to Sidi

Mohammed praising Hodeil as “a person of so distinguished

a rank and merit...who hath executed Your Imperial

Majesty’s commands with great prudence, care and

exactness; and we have therefore thought fit to give him, at

his departure hence, the testimony of our entire approbation

of his conduct during the time that he hath resided at our

court.”3

1 St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post, 3 March

1764. 2 Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser, 14 March 1764.

3 Rogers, Anglo-Moroccan Relations, p. 106. SP71/20, f. 661.


21

Two years later, the Sultan of Morocco sent El Hadj

Elarbi Mistiri to England to purchase some merchandise for

him, as well as deliver a letter to King George III.1 El Hadj

Elarbi Mistiri sailed on board the Moroccan royal warship,

the Tiger, from Salé and landed in Plymouth on 17th

October. The ambassador and his impressive retinue arrived

in London on Friday night in two coaches and nine post-

chaises and took residence on Suffolk Street, at Charing

Cross, occupying three houses. Interestingly, the ambassador

brought with him his wife and a band of Moroccan

musicians. He spoke English, French, and Italian.2

During his reception by George III the Moroccan envoy

was “grandly dressed; his scymeter was richly set with

diamonds.”3 He was invited to attend a grand ball given at the

St. James Palace ballroom.

In 1772, we learn of a Moroccan Jew, Salom Namias,

who “for several years resided in London and acted in the

capacity of merchant, and the better to carry on his business

about six years ago went over to Sale in the Kingdom of

Barbary carrying with him not only all his own effects but

also the effects of several merchants of this nation to dispose

thereof to their best advantage.”4

Following the death of his father, who occupied the

position of the Moroccan’s emperor’s advisor, Joseph

1 Ibid., pp. 106-107.

2 London Evening Post, November 22 and 25 1766. The

Sultan desired the King to send him “an engineer and ten workmen

skilled in the use of marble,” Rogers, Anglo-Moroccan Relations,

p. 107, SP. 102/2,ff 22-3. 3 London Evening Post, 1 January 1767, 3 January 1767.

4 SP 71/21, f. 24.


22

Sumbel, a Jewish merchant from Fez, came to England with

his family’s rich inheritance. In London he married actress

Beckey Wells (1759-1826) after her conversion to Judaism

under the name of Leah. The ceremony took place on 13

October 1797 according to Jewish rites.

Around that time, Meir Macnin, a prominent Moroccan

Jewish merchant from Marrakesh, was dispatched by Moualy

Sulayman to conduct business for him in Britain. He resided

in London for more than sixteen years conducting royal

commerce and also sending shipments of merchandise to his

brother in Essaouira (Mogadore). In addition to his trade

activities we find him writing in 1808 to Lord Castlereagh

asking for his assistance in procuring a passport for a Muslim

merchant from Marrakesh to allow him to travel to Britain

aboard a British ship.1 In 1827, Meir Macnin was still in

London carrying out business activities for Sidi

Abderrahman, Moulay Sulayman’s successor, who conferred

on him the distinguished title of the Sultan’s Jew.2

In 1817, Elio Zagury, a young Moroccan Jewish

merchant from Essaouira, arrived from London on board a

Genoese vessel flying a British flag, with a cargo of “dry

goods, iron, steel, cotton, &c.” The merchant “was dressed in

the European fashion, had been educated in England, and

spoke the English language fluently.”3

1 FO 52/14, 10 Oct 1808. See also Yedida Kalfon Stillman,

and Norman A. Stillman, eds. From Iberia to Diaspora: Studies in

Sephardic History and Culture (Leiden: Brill, 1999), p. 95. 2 Ibid., p. 97.

3 James Riley, An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the

American Brig Commerce (Hartford, Conn.: Andrus and Judd,

1833), p. 203.


23

In London in 1820s, a merchant named Hadj Ahamed

Ahardan, a royal tajar from a prominent Riffian family,

conducted business on behaf of the Sultan in Marseilles and

London.1 On 7 August 1844, a Morocan merchant exported a

cargo of muskets and balls to Tetuan.2

A Jewish mercahnt from Essaouira, Haim Benattar,

conducted trade in Lodnon in the 1820s. He resided on Fish

Street and Bevis-marks. He was declared bankrupt in 1825

and again in 1836.3 A few years later in February 1853, Taleb

Bohlal, a Muslim merchant from Essaouira was trading in

Britain in gums and other goods. Bohlal, whom the press

labelled as “A Man of Many Wives,” resided at No, 3,

Scarborough-street, Goodman’s-fields, Middlesex, then at

No. 23, Bevis Marks, London. He was arrested and

incarcerated in the Queen’s Prison for debt amounting to

£9,000. Bohlal appeared in the Debtor’s Court “dressed in the

Moorish fashion, with turban, &.”4 Among his creditors

appears the “Emperor of Morocco, who was inserted in the

schedule for upwards of £2000.”5

Another Moroccan merchant named Mollena offered to

pay £600 and bail him out. On being asked to swear on the

Old Testament, Mollena, who was attired in the Moorish

fashion, explained that in his country it was not customary

1 See Chronique de Tanger, 1820-1830: Abraham Bendelac,

‎edited J. L. Miège (Rabat: Editions La Porte, 1995), 75, and Daniel

J. Schroeter, Sultan’s Jew: Morocco and the Sephardi World

(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2002), p. 126. 2 The Standard, 8 August 1844.

3 The Manchester Times and Gazette, 24 December 1836.

4 Evening Standard, 21 January 1853.

5Ibid.

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24

“to swear on the Koran or on any book. Taking an oath in his

country was by turning the face to the east, calling on

Mohamet, and swearing in God.” The proposed bail was

sworn in this fashion and Bohlal was released.1

Other Moroccan merchants travelled to Britain in the

eighteenth century not so much to conduct trade but to seek

compensation for the loss of their cargoes incurred while

being transported on British ships. Nabil Matar refers to

them:

They wandered the streets of the metropolis,

sometimes completely disoriented and confused, and

wrote petitions with the help of locals who, as

translators, made the petitions more palatable to

English reading taste. They used phrases and

expressions of supplication that the English

translator deleted, but that have remained in use until

today, such as ‘Allah yirham walidayk’, or ‘May

God have mercy (on the souls) of your parent.2

In July, 1763, a merchant named Tahir Mustapha, “a

Moor subject of the Emperor of Morocco,” travelled to

London “soliciting satisfaction… for sundry effects of

considerable value which he embarked on board an English

vessel seized by the Spaniards before the late war.” King

George ordered the Treasury to pay the sum of £200 to the

Moroccan merchant as a compensation for his losses and the

1 The Standard, 14 February 1853. See also The Leeds

Times, 19 February 1853. 2 MacLean and Matar, Britain and the Islamic World, p. 21.

See Nabil Matar, “The Last Moors: Maghariba in Britain, 1700-

1750,” Journal of Islamic Studies 14 (2003), pp. 37-58.



25

expenses of his journey to England, as well as “to prevent the

Emperor from taking offence.”1

In October of the same year, Sid Hadge Mulood Charif

sent a letter to London to request taking possession of the

merchandise his brother was transporting on board the Dutch

ship, Le Freeport. The vessel had wrecked off the English

coast causing the death of his brother.2 During his time as

ambassador in London, Hodeil repeatedly applied to Lord

Halifax for the restitution of the cargo to Hadge Mulood. 3

By the end of the eighteenth century, we learn about a

merchant called Abd al-Salam Buhlal who traded in London

in 1786. In 1799, Buhlal petitioned the British government

for the restoration of his cargo captured on a Danish ship by

an English privateer while being transported from

Amsterdam to Morocco. Not receiving satisfaction, Buhlal

returned to England in 1802 carrying a recommondation

letter from Moulay Sulayman. Still not receiving any

satisfaction, Buhlal sailed again to London in 1807,

accompanied by his brothers al Abbas, Abd al-Karim and

Abd al-Majid.4 During their residence in London, the Buhlal

brothers were assisted by Abraham Benjamin, who acted as

1 Calendar of Home Office papers of the reign of George III:

1760-1775 (Great Britain: Public Record Office, 1967), p. 296. 2 Ibid., p. 315.

3 Ibid., p. 333.

4James Brow, Crossing The Strait: Morocco, Gibraltar and

Great Britain in the 18th- and 19

th-Centuries (Leiden: Brill, 2012),

pp. 148-49. N.A. FO 52/n,f. 264; N.A. FO 52/14, ff. 1-3, 8, 13, 47

and 177.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924091775217


https://www.google.co.ma/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Great+Britain.+Public+Record+Office%22




26

“agent to the Moors” in London, and Mubarak Tioubay, a

Moroccan merchant based in London.1

In the early eighteenth century, a Moroccan merchant

travelled to London to complain “in mixed broken English

and Spanish” of the capture and sale of his ship and cargo by

an English frigate for breaking the blockade of Marseilles. At

first he was given no redress; but when Lord Bathurst,

Secretary for War and the Colonies, learned that the Moorish

merchant was bearing a letter from his emperor to the King of

England, he “treated him like a prince; that he not only paid

him all his money, but sent him to ‘Park in coachee’ with fine

horses, and then to play-house.” It is reported that whenever

the merchant went to the play-house, the newspapers

announced “Moor Go to Play-house;” so that “on those nights

there was a great deal of money made by the number of

people that went to see him.”2

However, not all Moroccan merchants were tujars of

the Sultan or from the elite bourgeoisie. Actually, the first

Moroccan community to land in England consisted of

pedlers, both Muslims and Jews, predominantly from the city

of Essaouira and concentrated in London.

In Essaouira people recounted stories of how young

Moroccans made “plenty of money” selling rhubarb in the

streets of London. Moroccans easily found a way to be

smuggled to Gibraltar and work there long enough to pay for

their passage to England. Hence, in the late eighteenth

century, we read numerous newspaper reports on the arrival

1 See James Brow, Crossing the Strait, pp. 148-49.

2 George Beauclerk, A Journey to Marocco in 1826

(London: Poole & Edwards, 1828), p. 25.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/journey-to-marocco-in-1826/oclc/43241687&referer=brief_results


27

of “Moors from Morocco” in Portsmouth aboard vessels

coming from Gibraltar, Minorca and Lisbon.1

Hence, Moroccan peddlers appeared in the streets of

London as early as 1800s. Dressed in their white turbans,

they hawked their wares of ribbons, combs, handkerchiefs,

and scissors, rhubarb, and spices. Being interviewed by

journalist Henry Mayhew, a peddler gives valuable

information on these Moroccans, as well as an intersting

autobiography of his itinerary from his native city of

Essaouira to Gibraltar, and then to London:

I am one native of Mogadore in Morocco. I am an

Arab. I left my countree when I was sixteen or

eighteen year of age. …… I like to see foreign

countries …When I got to Gibraltar, I begin to have

a little stand in de street wid silk handkershiefs,

cotton handkerchiefs. .. After I am six year in

Gibraltar, I begin to tink I do better in England….

So I start off, and get I here I tink in 1811.…. I live

in Mary Axe Parish when I first come. …

The Moroccan peddler goes on to recount that he got

married two or three years after coming to London and that

he, together with his wife, travelled to work in various parts

of England, Scotland, and Wales.2

1 Times, 2 November 1799.

2 Mayhew, Henry, London Labour and the London Poor

(New York: Dover Publications, 1968), vol. 1, p. 1861.


28

10. Moroccan peddler in London, 1800s

11. Moroccan Jewish peddler in London, 1850s


29

He explains that there were six or seven Moroccans

selling rhubarb and spices in the streets of London. Another

five travelled through the country. Interestingly also he

explains that one of the peddlers was a “very old Arabian”

named Sole who had been a peddler in London for forty year.

“He wear de long beard and Turkish dress. He used to stand

by Bow Shursh, Sheapside.”

The Jewish Moroccan peddlers included Ben Aforiat

and his two brothers and Azuli. The Aforiat’s brothers sold

their goods in St. Paul’s churchyard.

The interviewee explains that the Moorish peddlers

worked in their native attire and that the English “like to buy

de Turkey rhubarb of de men in de turbans.”

3. MOROCCAN TUJAR: CROSSING AND DWELLING

Evidently, when the merchants of Fez decided in the

1830s to leave the old medina and immigrate to Britain, they

were by no means moving to a terra incognitta. In fact, they

were relocating to a country with which Moroccans had had

a long-standing commercial experince. Moroccan merchants

had accumulated geographical knowledge of their host

country, were familiar with foreign trade networks,

commercial contacts, and communication channels, and

many of them spoke foreign languages.

Moroccan merchants’ immigration flow to Britain in

the early nineteenth century was, in fact, part of a complex

process of globalization of Moroccan trade and human

diaspora. Simultaneous to this movement to Britain, other




30

Moroccan tujars, circus and theatrical artists, and workers

established themselves in other countries, such as Algeria,

Senegal, Egypt, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Gibraltar.

While others explored even more remote destinations by

sailing to North and South Americas.

12. Abdrahman Hajji, Moroccan merchant in London

Moroccan commercial immigration to Dar Nasara

benefited from the fact that the Moroccan court encouraged

people to travel to the land of the Christians as part of the

Makhzen’s determination to open up to and know more about

the West, understand the secret of its growing power, and

learn from its experience.


31

The Moroccan immigrants to Britain were mainly from

Fez, but some came from Tangier, Essaouira, Larache, Rabat,

and Casablanca. Amor, Barnoussi, Ben Abdjelil, Ben

Boubker, Benchakroun, Benjelloun, Benkiran, Benmassoud,

Bennani, Bennaser, Benyakhlef, Berrada, Boayad, Elofer,

Felloul, Guessous, Hajoui, Kabbaj, Kurtbi, Lahlu, Lazrak,

Madani, Tazi, and Ziat were all prominent families that

established businesses in Manchester.1

Because the journey was long and perilous for these

merchants, “a merchant, before he set off, would make a

pledge to enrich the shrine on his safe return.” Bernard

Newman notes that “A favourite gift was a clock,” so that

“most of the clocks in the shrine are English.”2

There were also Jewish émigrés from Fez, Tangier, and

Mogador such as Abensur, Abitbol, Afriat, Benzaquen,

Benzarraf, Causins, Cohen, and Serfaty. With a few

exceptions, these families, Muslim and Jewish alike, were

educated, wealthy, and experienced in business.

Louis M. Hayes, a local Manchester merchant

acquainted with the early Moroccans of Manchester, notes

1On Moroccan families in Manchester, see Fred Halliday,

“The Millet of Manchester: Arab Merchants and Cotton Trade,”

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 19 (1992), pp. 159-76;

Hassan Kourounful, Ahl Fas: Al Mal wa Siyassa (Rabat: Dar Abbi

Raqraq, 2007), p. 64; Jean Louis Miège, Le Maroc et l’Europe,

1830-1894: Les difficultés (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,

1962), p. 34; Roger Le Tourneau, s a ant le protectorat

(Casablanca: SMLE, 1949). 2 Bernard Newman, Morocco Today (London: Hale, 1953),

p. 201.

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32

that one of the first tradesmen to conduct business with the

Moroccans was Thomas Forshaw at Norfolk Street.

Here, if you had any business to transact with any of

these clients of his, you would usually find them

congregated in his entrance lobby, where there were

benches lining the sides, on which they would be

seated, as it were, in general council. It was quite an

Oriental picture to see them grouped around in their

quaint picturesque attire, surmounted by the white

turban or the red fez … If you had any

communication to make to any of their number you

were often obliged to make it in the presence and

hearing of the entire conclave; and as a rule there

was disposition to keep their transactions secret from

each other, and at times they would consult amongst

themselves before the one in treaty with you would

make up his mind as to placing an order. 1

Later on, as the Moroccans became more acquainted

with English trade practices, “Thomas Forshaw gradually lost

his hold upon them, for the Moors discovered by degrees that

they could go into the market and buy in their own names.”2

One of the first Moroccans to be established in

Manchester was Taleb Benjelun. Hayes describes him as

1 Louis M. Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester, and Some

of Its Local Surroundings from the Year 1840 (London: Sherratt &

Hughes, 1905), p. 207. 2 Louis M. Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester, p. 207.


33

a handsome man, although somewhat short of

stature, but for his height he was one of the fattest

men I had then come across. He seemed to carry a

very mountain of adipose matter in front of him as

he came paddling along the street, and swaying

about from side and to side; and you could not but

sympathise with him as you saw him panting for

breath as he slowly mounted the stairs to his office.1

13. Taib Bengelun, Shipping Merchant, 1926

A Manchester paper gives a more detailed biographical

account of Benjelun:

Taleb Bengelum, a well-known Morocco merchant,

of this city. Bengelum, who was a native of Fez, was

one of the earliest Moors who established himself as

a merchant in Manchester, and became a permanent

resident in the city; and who subsequently

was followed by quite a small colony of his

countrymen. He had done for several years an

extensive import business in native produce from

Morocco; and was somewhat extensive shipper of

Manchester, Bradford, Nottingham, and Birmingham

manufactures to most of the Morocco and Algerian

1Ibid., pp. 207-208.


34

ports; and was sometime engaged in Egyptian trade.

His portly form—dressed in full oriental or Moorish

costume—used to be the source of considerable

attraction as he wended his way along the streets of

Manchester, or in the suburbs, on the Oxford Road

side of the city. Bengelum, both in his business

transactions and his social relations, was an

exceedingly straightforward and warm-hearted man,

and enjoyed the highest regard and confidence of

everyone with whom he came in contact.1

Benjelun used his office for business as well as a

congregation place for his coreligionists who used to crowd

in it, “filling the rooms to overflowing, some sitting, some

reclining, whilst others would be squatted about Eastern

fashion, with their legs doubled up underneath them…. and

when they all got talking, more or less together, with their

various intonations, accents and gesticulations, it was really

quite entertaining to be in their midst.” Sometimes Muslim

traders from Cairo and Alexandria joined them.2

In the host country, Moroccan merchants tried to retain contacts with home. For instance, in July 1937, Ahmed Bouayad travelled to Britain with his family. He paid Laoufir, a bookshop keeper in Casablanca, to convey Arabic newspapers to his residence in Manchester.

3

1The Manchester Evening News, 31 July 1886.

2 Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester, p. 208.

3 Mohammed Kenbib, ‎ Les proté és contri ution l'histoire

contemporaine du Maroc (Casablanca: Facult des Lettres et des

Sciences Humaines, 1996), p. 336, note 71.B.Q.I.P., 2 July 1937.


35

Name & date

of birth

Spouse:

date & place

of birth

Residence Children:

date & place

of birth

Source

Banyakliffe,

Driss 1880

Fatima: 1884,

Morocco

Lancashire Fatima 1903

Chorlton

Census

1911

Ben Ali

Mohamed

Sarah Downs

Salford

Lancashire Marriage

index

1920

Benahdallah

Driss:1881

Joharah: 1886,

Morocco

Lancashire Ritah 1907

Mohamed

1905, Manch

Census

1911

Benaki,

Benasta 1845

Merjjonla:

1857,

Morocco

8 Lothair St

Chorlton on

Medlock

Abdelkeda

1879,

Manchester

Census

1881

Benaki, Haj

Mahomed

1844

8 Lothair St

Chorlton On

Medlock,

Lancashire

Census

1881

Benani,

Driss

1825

married Moss Lane

East Moss

Villas

Census

1881

Benani, Taher

1855

40 Derby St

Moss Side

Lancashire

Census

1881

Benani,

Hamed 1856

Lancashire 1901

Benhamo

Obdelkader

1873

Age 38

Yasmin

1885

Age 26

Fez

17 Parkfield

St

Rusholme,

Manchester

1911


36

Benchekroun

Mohamed

1866

Marinda

1879,

Morocco

Lancashire

Census

1911

Bengelun,

Taleb

1884

Fatima,

1896

Died in 1921

40 Parkfield

Street

Manchester

Abdelmajid

1918

Casablanca

various

Bengelun,

Ahmed: 1867

Lancashire

Census

1911

Bengelun,

Elarbi

1901

Habiba

1906

Morocco

42 Granville

Rd

Fallowfield

Manchester

Nofyssa (7)

Mohamed

(4)

Passenger

list: April

1935

Bengelun,

Larbi

1847

160 Lloyd St

Moss Side,

Lancashire

Census

1881

Bengelun,

Mohamed

1873

Mabraka

1884

Morocco

Lancashire

Census

1911

Benhamo,

Abdelkader:

1873

Yasmin:

1885,

Morocco

Census

1911

Benani,

Mohamed:

1841

Fatim Zahra?

1869,

Morocco

Lancashire

Azaya

1890,

Manchester

Census

1891

Berada,

Driss

1831

Lancashire Census

1881

Berrada,

Taleb

1846

Widower 53 Parkfield

St, Moss

Lane

Census

1881

Berdai

Ahmed

1889

Fatima

1900

456 Moss

Lane East,

Manchester

Passenger

list

9 April

1925


37

Boayed,

Hamed

1886

Rhalia: 1890 460 Moss-

lane East,

Manchester

Abelouhab?

1923

Kenza 1925

Passenger

list 1938

Elaraki,

Kassin: 1883

Lancashire

Census

1911

Elcohen,

Mohamed 1872

Lancashire Census

1901

Elcohen,

Sahdyn 1900

Lancashire Census

1901

Elofer, Haghi

1836

married 8 Sylvan Gr

Chorlton On

Medlock

Lancashire

Mehomed

1879

Rabat

Census

1881

Farah, Afeely

1885

Lancashire,

Census

1911

Gamoon,

Hadge M:

1845

Adiga: 1863,

Cairo, Egypt

11 Parkfield

Street

Moss Lane

Lancashire

Census

1881

Grossen,

Abdereaham

1856

Lancashire Census

1901

Guesus, Hadji

Elarbi

1841

Alice: 1865,

Widnes,

Lancashire

43 Denmark

Rd

Chorlton on

Medlock

Lulu 1887,

Blackpool,

Randolph

1892

Altrincham

Census

1891

Hagea,

Sealli

1825

Moss Lane

East Moss

Villas

Census

1881

Lazarac,

Saleb

1851

Fatima: 1864,

Cairo, Egypt

11 Parkfield

St,

Moss Lane

Census

1881


38

14. Moroccan Manchester merchants

15. Fassi Shipping Merchants in Manchester, 1926

Another early Moroccan trader to have resided in

Manchester was Absalom Ben Abdallah. Married to the sister

of Mohamed Meri, another Moroccan resident in Manchester,

Lancashire

Lehluh,

Hadie T.

1831

Fatima

1851

Ethiopia

63 Parkfield

St,

Moss Lane

Mohamed

1861,

Morocco

Census

1881

Tazzi,

Abdelmaged

1846

Meloka

1862

Constantinople

33 A

Grafton St,

Chorlton on

Medlock,

Lancashire

Census

1881

Ziat,

Mohamed

1869

Batoun

1877

Morocco

30 Parkfield

St

Manchester

Ayesha 1906

Mohamed

1907

Khadoush

1909

Manchester

Census

1911


39

he spent eight years in England and died in 1852 at his home

in Chapel Place, Moreton Street, at the age of sixty-seven.1

Interesting, upon arrival in Manchester Moroccan

émigrés did not reside in the same neighbourhood, but

different streets, one mile to eight miles distance of each

other. We find families living in Parkfield Street, Denmark

Road, Grafton Street, Lloyd Street, Derby Street, Lothair

Street, Ducie Street, Egerton Road, Grafton Street. Most of

the Moroccan merchants established their offices in the busy

Market Street.

At first, being illiterate in English, they hired an

Englishman who spoke Moroccan Arabic, perhaps a certain

Mr. Jones, as their adviser.2 Despite their ignorance of

English they coped successfully with their alien environment:

When one of them comes for the first time, he is

bound to encounter some difficulties because of his

ignorance of the language of the country and of its

streets, yet such temporary ignorance had no impact

on his dealings. He goes out alone, buys whatever he

needs and communicates with people. How he does

so and in what language, only God knows.3

1 http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives _and_

local_ history/506/multi-cultural_manchester/9. / 2 Halliday, “The Millet of Manchester,” pp. 159-176.

3 Abdelmajid Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula (Rabat: Dar an-Nashr

lil Maarifa, 1993), p. 34. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Arabic to English are mine.

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelmajid_Benjelloun,_historian


40

16. Deposition of Witness, 26 November 1852,

concerning the death of Absalom Ben Abdallah, merchant

in Manchester, aged 67, signed by his brother-in-law,

Hamet Meri (Mohamed Marin)


41

Their linguistic handicap was, however, short lived. The

Moors, Ben Slimane, a merchant in Manchester, affirms, “not

only learned standard English but had acquired a knowledge

of Lancashire dialect as well.”1

Convinced of their perfect knowledge of the English

language, with English diplomatic style, and with English

political affairs, Moulay Abdelhafid dispatched four

Moroccan Manchester merchants on a diplomatic mission to

the court of King Edward VII in 1908. The purpose of their

mission was to secure London’s recognition of his

succession, following the deposition of his brother Moulay

Abdelaziz.2

In addition to their high propensity for learning English

the Manchester Moroccans earned a reputation for their

businessmen acumen. “The main reason for their success,”

explains Henry Dugard, is that they “were able to explain to

the English houses the habits and preferences of their co-

religionists, whom they serve as intermediaries.”3

Abdelmajid Benjelloun recounts a funny anecdote about

a new arrival:

It happened that a new visitor came from Casablanca

and stayed with us. My father was ill and unable to

1 Jim Ingram, The Land of Mud Castles (London: John

Long, 1952), p. 38. 2 The Manchester Guardian, 12 June 1908. An interesting

incident in relation to the Moroccan diplomats took place at their

hotel at Bloomsbury. A “Moor, robed entirely in white, was

endeavouring to persuade the official again to permit him to kill

with his own hands chickens” in the Islamic fashion. The official

refused. See Yorkshire Evening Post 15 October 1907. 3 Dugard, Le Maroc de 1919, p. 128.

http://books.google.com/books?id=36o_AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Fez+and+my+native+city+Manchester%22&dq=%22Fez+and+my+native+city+Manchester%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NOrzUpeIOsnN0QW59oGoCg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ




42

go out. So, the visitor was obliged to go out alone.

When he went out for the first time, my sister

accompanied him to translate for him. My father

gave him an envelope on which was written the

house’s address to show it to a policeman if

necessary to help him find his way. Our fellow went

out with my sister, street after street, took a public

taxi and went far away from the house. When he had

fulfilled all he had wished and wanted to return back

home, he was lost. He asked my sister if she knew

the way back but she understood not what he was

saying to her. So she took him to one of the shops

thinking that he wanted to buy something. He was

frustrated at not being understood. Finally he

approached one of the passers-by and greeted him

with a smile. The other reciprocated the smile and

our fellow put his hand in his pocket and took out

the envelope and handed it to the man. The man

realized from his look that he was a foreigner. He

took the envelope, read the address, escorted him to

one of the shops, bought a stamp and glued it to the

envelope, then motioned to him to follow him. The

Moroccan was utterly astounded when he saw the

man approaching a letter box and putting the

envelope in it. The Englishman was astonished when

he saw our fellow about to fall from laughter and left

in surprise.1

Although business ran in their blood, it “was not the

sole mission of those people.” Benjelloun explains, “they had

1 Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula, pp. 34-35.



43

a strange inclination to the enjoyment of life: that joyful life

that English cities and their resorts offered them.”1 Elsewhere

he affirms that “These are people who have learnt in their

country to cherish Spring and its glorious days. So, they

would meet in the afternoons and go out to public parks to

enjoy the fascinations of fabulous nature.”2 Leisure time and

holidays were spent outdoors: going to the theatre and

cinema, visiting the zoo, hiking, picnicking, going on

excursions.

In the summer, Moroccan families went on trips to the

beach in Blackpool. In 1911, for instance, many Manchester

based Moroccans, namely Kassin Elaraki, Ahoed Elgnouie,

Stanely Bouiyad, Ahmed Bengelun, Mohamed Bengehun and

his wife Mabraka, and Driss Benahdallah and his wife

Joharah went on holiday to Blackpool at 8 Lansdowne

Claremont. They were waited on by at least seven British

servants. Even abroad the Fassi merchants pursued a life of

ease and opulence.

4. BRINGING ISLAM TO MANCHESTER

The call to prayer sounded for the first time in the skies

of Manchester upon the arrival of the Moroccans. Because

there were no mosques in the city Muslims performed the

Friday prayers in a house at Parkfield Street. The imam who

presided over the prayer also meticulously supervised the

procurement of halal meat from a local slaughterhouse for his

fellow Muslims.

1Ibid., pp. 33-35.

2 Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula, pp. 33-34.



44

During the month of Ramadan, the English were

exposed to the manner of Muslim fasting from dawn to dusk.

Muslims had to adapt to fasting in Manchester, where the

days are longer than in their own homeland:

During their long fast of Ramadan, the most of them

neither ate, drank or smoked during the day. In their

own country this was not such a serious matter as it

is with us, as in Morocco the days and nights are

more nearly equal in the summer months, when this

fast takes place, than is the case in England. Here

they required to fast from about three in the morning

until about eight in the evening, which constituted a

great strain upon the system for many weeks.1

When the faqih, religious scholar, Mohammed al

Hajoui came as a tourist to Manchester in 1919, the

Moroccans gathered around him and asked him for a fatwa

concerning the religious issues they encountered abroad.

They inquired, for instance:

whether prayer was valid for a Muslim who was

dressed in clothes made of the wool of a sheep that was not

slaughtered according to Islamic law;

whether it was halal to use yeast made by the

fermentation of barley from which liquor was derived, hether

it was permissible to combine prayers when necessary, and

whether people were dispensed from the Isha, evening

prayer, in a country where there was no twilight.2


2 Mohamed Al Hajoui, Ar-Rihla al Urubbiya (1919), in Said

Ben Said al Alaoui, Uruba fi Miraati ar-Rihla (Rabat: Faculty of Letters, 1995), pp.177-184.


45

These fatwa questions reveal how Islam needed to

adjust to its implantation in a Christian land.

The Moroccan merchants were most certainly the first

Muslims that the inhabitants of Manchester had come in

contact with and they were certainly eager to know about

them and their different religious rituals and cultural

practices.

This is also true of the children in Benjelloun’s

neighbouhood. When Abdelmajid returned from a visit to

Morocco, his neighbourhood mates gathered around him in a

back street to listen to his marvellous stories about his alien

homeland. Abdelmajid, who had a thoroughly anglicized

outlook, said about his Moroccan compatriots:

The people eat and sleep in the same room, and sit

and sleep on big pillows. At bedtime, it turns into a

bedroom. At breakfast, lunch, and dinner ... a young

maid comes with a yellow vessel in one hand and a

pitcher in the other and moves round the sitters to

wash their hands. We [in Manchester] go to the

faucet, over there the faucet comes to them!1

5. MOROCCAN VIEWS OF MANCHESTER

Coming from a highly sophisticated and affluent

background and being proud of their long and rich

civilization, Fassi merchants interacted with their host society

without any feeling of racial or cultural inferiority.

To the Moroccans, Manchester seemed an utterly exotic

land. Here they became acquainted with strange aspects of

1 Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula, p. 91.



46

modern life and amazing and complex innovations: the trams,

trains, and telegraph enchanted them.

Back home, they entertained their bemused audiences

with tales of the technological wonders of Britain. Ben

Ahmed, a Fassi emigrant, told his audience upon returning

from Manchester:

A journey from London to Manchester, by Allah!

costs no more than three or four dollars. It is a long

journey. More than a thousand miles. God is my

witness that I speak the truth. You take a seat in a

sumptuous apartment and — pouf!! the room flies.

In three or four hours, by the mercy of A’llah, you

arrive at your destination.1

6. THE MOROCCANS IN MANCHESTER:

FASHIONING NEW IDENTITIES

Though originally small in number, Moroccan

immigrants conspicuously stood out in the Manchester streets

in their oriental flowing robes, turbans, and yellow slippers.

This Moorish apparel provoked curiosity among the

inhabitants. “Early in the sixties [1860s],” Hayes writes in his

chapter “Old Manchester Moors,”

you passed along the business streets of the City,

you would suddenly come in sight of some white

turbaned individual, whose gay Eastern dress

1 Lawrence L. Harris, With Mulai Hafid at Fez: Behind the

Scenes in Morocco (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1909), pp. 167-

169.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22London%20%3A%20Smith%2C%20Elder%20%26%20Co.%22


47

appeared in such strong contrast to the sombre of the

attire of all those about him. At first the sight of one

of these men in Moorish grab was a very uncommon

occurrence, and people would stand and smile as one

of them passed along.1

In addition to their alien outfit, the Moroccans behaved

in the streets in a way that astonished the English:

They walked not on pavements but in a long file of

more than ten people in the wagon and car roads,

while talking in loud voices. Their being in the street

does not affect their screams, giggles and actions. In

fact the neighbours have been accustomed to them

and are no longer astonished at their behaviour.2

Following the success of the first émigrés, more

Moroccans trickled in and “the number of white turbans to be

seen in the streets of Manchester steadily and perceptibly

increased.”3 Eventually, Moroccans became part of

Manchester street landscape, contributing significantly to the

fashioning of the city’s ethnic and religious diversity and

multiculturalism. Gradually, with the appearance of more

white turbans in Manchester, the alien foreigners

ceased to be a wonder, and so they go to do their

business in their usual quiet way, and make their

purchases at the shops without more than perhaps a

casual glance from the passers-by .… Taken as a

whole, these Moors were a thoughtful, peaceable,

1Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester, p. 205.

2Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula, p. 34.



48

kindly and sociable set of men. Mohammedans by

faith, one could not but admire and respect them for

their strict observance of all that their religion

enjoyed.1

Though strongly attached to their cultural and religious

heritage, the Moroccans readily adapted to their diaspora

environment. For instance, they began wearing boots instead

of slippers, which they found to be impractical in the wet

Manchester climate. They also changed their turbans for red

fezzes so that “they were known among children as ‘the red

hats.’”2

Like other Moroccan children in Manchester,

Adelmajid used to play with his classmates in the courtyard

sliding on snow or throwing snowballs at each other. He

mixed freely with his British neighbours and classmates,

hardly aware of their religious and cultural differences. At

school, he became aware for the first time of his Islamic

identity.

While education in Morocco was strictly religious,

Moroccans in Manchester had no qualms about sending their

kids to British schools. Abdelmajid remembers his first day

of school:

At school, I learnt something new that disturbed me.

I attended Sunday prayer with students and when I

came back home and talked to my mother about it

her face saddened. I heard her saying that she

wouldn’t allow me to pray with the children. She

described them as being Christians and me with

1 Ibid., p. 208.



49

another label I didn’t know until the following day

when she accompanied me to school and implored

the school principal to exempt me from prayer since

Christianity was not my religion and told her that I

was a Muslim. I expected a refusal from the

principal as people said about her that she was pious.

On the contrary, she consented to my mother’s plea,

deeming it understandable and reasonable. I knew I

was different from those people in nationality, which

pained me immensely, for why was I not like all the

other people? And when I knew that I differed also

in religion – though I knew not what religion meant

– I was much distressed.1

Although eager to preserve their cultural identity and

Islamic customs, the Moroccans of Manchester participated

in the culture of their host country. Abdelmajid Benjelloun

frequently went to cinemas, theatres, zoos, and public

gardens in the company of Miss Millie Paternos.

During Christmas, holidays Moroccans exchanged

visits and gave gifts and toys to their kids. In his

autobiographical novel Fi at-Tufula, Abdelmajid Benjelloun

recounts vivid memories of Moroccans’ celebration of

Christmas:

Christmas was a joyous day, full of exultation and

pleasure. We visited the Paternos family in the

morning and listened to the storyteller who was

chanting wonderful songs in that room decorated

beautifully with flowers, pictures and nice furniture.

1 Ibid., pp. 58-59.


50

It was indeed a magnificent Christmas, and it was a

delightful day of the year, always abounding with

toys, gifts, decorations, songs, and smiles.1

They also attended a Christmas party organized by their

English friends. Abdelmajid remembers this party:

As we entered the party hall our eyes were

fascinated by the Christmas tree, wonderfully

decorated with gifts and toys. All the children

participated in the game of discovering the secret,

laughing and playing. We sat at the dining table,

which was laden with sweets and delicious food.

Then we bade our host goodbye and spent the

afternoon in the public garden, and in the evening

we went in a group to see a movie.2

Abdelmajid’s house was usually crowded with Moroccan

visitors, sometimes new arrivals from Fez. He remembers

how utterly strange their outfits and behaviour struck him and

how unintelligible their language seemed to him.

Abdelmajid’s astonishment at the exotic dress and behaviour

of his compatriots and his ignorance of their language shows

the extent of the assimilation and acculturation of the

Manchester Moroccans.

They were reshaped by the culture they came in contact

with. In this respect, Eugene Aubin says about Hadj al

Madani Tazi, a Fassi who established himself in Manchester

for about thirty-three years, that “His long stay in England


2 Ibid., pp. 70-71.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=780&bih=381&q=define+magnificent&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjSmr7s0fnLAhVjJJoKHf8cADQQ_SoIHzAA


51

has given his features and complexion a somewhat British

appearance.”1

This hybridity is also expressed in the Moroccans’

adoption of British citizenship. Despite the Makhzan’s and

Ulams’ vilification of naturalization, a considerable number

of Moroccans did apply and receive British citizenship.

The first British citizenship being granted to a Moroccan

took place as early as 1850. Adelsalam Lahbabi received

British citizenship in 1862. Hadj Elarbe Guesus’s Certificate

of Naturalization on August 21,1873, states that Hadj Elarbi

was a

natural born subject of the Emperor of Morocco in

Arabia; aged thirty-three years; a Merchant, carrying

on business at N40 Chorlton Street, Manchester, in

the Country of Lancaster, married, and that he has

one child, namely Isha Guesus, now residing at Fez,

Morocco, and that in the period eight years

preceding his application he has resided for five

years in the United Kingdom, and intends, when

naturalized, to reside therein: Hadji Elarbe Guesus

of number 40 Chorlton Street in the city of

Manchester Merchant, do swear that I will be

faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty

Queen Victoria, her Heirs and Successors, according

to law. So help me God.

1 Eugene Aubin, Morocco of To-Day (London: J.M. Dent &

Co., 1906), p. 269.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Eugene+Aubin%22


52

17. Certificate of Naturalization for Hadji Elarbi Guesus


53

It is, indeed, very interesting that a Muslim, who had

performed pilgrimage to Mecca and earned the venerated title

of Hadj, should renege on his allegiance to a Muslim

sovereign and Commander of the Faithful and transfer it to a

Christian one and become a subject of a foreign nation. This

is quite reveling about the refashioning of Muslim identity in

the nineteenth century.

The children of Moroccan parents became British

subjects when born in England. Indeed, the Moroccans knew

the advantages of having British children. The Manchester

City News writes:

Having borne a large family, many of the children

born in Manchester enjoy British nationality, and

although returned to their native city of Fez, other

generations born in Morocco claim by right

British nationality, of which they are very proud

and value its privileges, although they may never

probably see the country, which through accident

of birth they claim, and which will be enjoyed for

generations to come. The British Consul at Fez

has records of these numerous British subjects.

These privileges are unfortunately lost to the

female sex when they marry.1

For the Fassi bourgeoisie, business interests were far

more important than national or even cultural identity. In a

dynamic world of travel and trade, the Fassi bourgeoisie felt a

need to assume new identities without being troubled with

any religious consciousness or national loyalties.

1 Manchester City News, 2 October 1936.


54

18. Census 1911

Name Marital

status

Age, date

& place of

birth

occupation Nationality

Stanley

Bonaid

Married 47, 1864,

Fez

Merchants

Shipper

Moorish

Kassin

Elaraki

Single 28,1883,

Fez

Foreign

Correspondent

Moorish

Ahored

Elgnowi

Single 27, 1884,

Fez

Foreign

Correspondent

Moorish

Mohamed

Bengelun

Married 38, 1873,

Fez

Merchant

Shipper

Moorish

Mabraka

Bengelun

Married 27,1884,

Fez

Moorish

Dris

Benabdallah

Married 30, 1881,

Fez o

Naturalized

1909

Joharah

Benabdallah

Wife 25, 1886,

Abdah

Morocco

Merchant

Shipper

Moorish

Mohamed

Benabdallah

Son 6, 1905,

Lancs

Manchester

English

Ritah

Benabdallah

Daughte

r

4,1907,

Lancs

Manchester

English

Ahdamjed

Aksly

Married 64, 1847,

Fez

Foreign

Correspondent

Moorish

Ahmed

Bengelun

44, 1867,

Fez

Merchant

Shipper

Moorish


55

19. C

ensu

s 1911


56

It was this urge for new identities that prompted some

Moroccan merchants to anglicise their names such as Bin

Sikri, which was converted to Sicree,1 marry English women,

and give foreign names to their children, such as in the case

of Hadj Elarbi Guessus who named his son Randolph.

Naturalization was prompted by an aspiration to

integrate more into the host country and benefit from the

protection of the British crown. In the Tetuan Historical

Archive there are numerous British Consular letters

recommending Moroccan naturalized merchants based in

Britain to the Moroccan authorities. A letter dated 11

November 1886, for instance, announces the arrival in Fez of

Taleb Lazrak from Manchester and solicits the Makhzen to

offer him due assistance. Another letter dated 26 May 1886

requests the intervention of the Mayor of Fez for the

restitution of hides to Hadj Boubker Guessous and a

compensation payment. And on 12 May 1891 Consul Herbert

White wrote to Hadj Mohammed Torres to alleviate the

additional tax imposed on Mohammed Bennani.2

1 See Halliday, “The Millet of Manchester,” p. 164.

2 See Samir Bouzouita, “Qadaya fi al Alaqat al

Maghribiya al Britaniya khilala al Qarn Atasia Ashar,” in Al

Maghrib fi al Kitabat al Anglo Saxsoniya (Rabat: Al

Mandubiya aSamiya li Qudamaa al Muharibin wa Jaysh

Atahrir, 2015), pp. 29-90.


57

Name date of

Naturalization

Place of Residence

Benabdala, Elhach

Abdeslam

1 July 1850

Benabdellah, Driss 21 Sept 1909 10, Parkfield-street,

Moss Side

Benani,

Tahar

14 Jan, 1885 Withington

Benasher, Hadji

Elofer

5 Sep, 1881 Manchester

Benazuz,

Mehamed

19 Jan 1850

Bengelun, Elarbi

23 June 1933 42, Granville Road,

Fallowfield

Bengelun, Taleb 27 Feb 1880 Manchester

Boayed, Hamed

and his son

Abelouhab

27 March,

1935

7, Sherwood,

Avenue, Fallowfield

Elhadjwy,

Hadj Hassan

15 Aug 1889 Brooklands

Ganoon, Hadji

Mahomet

Belcasson

1 Aug 1882

Guessus,

Mohammed

5 May 1897 5, Parkfield St,

Moss-lane East

Guesus , Hadji

Elarbe

11 Feb 1873

Lahbadi,

Adelsalam

12 July 1862

Lazarac,

Taleb

1 Oct 1894 40, Parkfield-street,

Moss-lane East

Lehluh,

Hadj Talb

11 Dec 1882 Manchester

Tazzi, Abdelmaged 1 Nov, 1877 Chorlton on


58

Medlock, Lancashire

Weld Silmon,

Mahomed

3 Sept 1877

Ziat,

Mohamed

20 Sep 1910 Manchester

20. List of Manchester Moroccans who naturalized

British

7. PREDICAMENTS OF EXILE IN FOREIGN LANDS

The Moroccans involved themselves in business and

enjoyed the various attractions and amusements that

Manchester afforded. Life in diaspora, however, was by no

means straightforward or smooth. Living among a mono-

ethnic and mono-cultural community far from home carried

its own risks. Sometimes the Moroccan émigrés were

exposed to xenophobia. During his visit to Morocco,

Lawrence Harris met a former Moroccan who had conducted

business in Manchester. As Harris began eulogizing

chauvinistically of the virtues of the British and their

kindness towards immigrants, the Moor interrupted him:

What is it you say…the N’zeranis are better? How?

Show it me. Did I not see prisons in your lands,

larger than the biggest Kaid’s house in Morocco?

Have I not heard enough and more of what is done

in your great cities? When I was in Manchester, did


59

not the boys who saw me in the streets throw stones

at me, because I wore a turban?1

In addition to racism, Moroccans were sometimes

victims of theft and embezzlements. At his residence at

Parkfield Street, Rusholme, Mohamed Bennani had under his

employment as a 21-year-old housemaid, Annie Holmes. The

Manchester papers report that on 16 June 1876, Annie stole

“a diamond ring, gold watch and chain, pair of earrings, and

other articles of jewellery from the house of Mahomet

Benani.” The police eventually arrested Annie Holmes while

trying to sell the stolen items to a pawnbroker in Liverpool.2

At the Manchester County Police Court, Bennani stated that

he was a merchant carrying out business in

Manchester, and living in Rusholmes. The prisoner

was at his employ for about six months. On 16th

June he and his wife went out on a visit, and upon

their return found that the prisoner had decamped,

taking with her amongst other things, the articles in

respect of which the charge was made.3

1 Harris, With Mulai Hafid at Fez, pp. 39-40.

2 “A Dishonest Servant Girl,” Edinburgh Evening News, 26

September 1876. See also the Manchester Evening, 24 October

1876, and the Manchester Times, 30 September 1876. 3 Manchester Times, 30 September 1876.


60

21. Rusholme, Manchester, 1904

Taleb Bengelun, too, fell victim to theft. His clerk,

James Thorn, employed at the warehouse of Bengelun and

Brothers at 2, South Street, embezzled him of the “sume of

money, amounting to 416.10s.”1 Thorn was tried and sent to

jail for four months.

The Manchester papers that printed these thefts also

recorded the tragic story of Driss Benkiran’s wife, Yasmine.

Born in 1884, Yasmine arrived in Manchester in May 19062

at the age of 22. She resided with her husband, Driss, at

Parkfield Street, Rusholme. Five months later, in 26 October,

Yasmine was found hanging dead in her kitchen. Under the

title “Moorish Lady’s Death” the Manchester Courier gives

this account:

1 “Embezzlement by a Clerk,” Manchester Evening News, 26

April, 1878, and Manchester Times, 27 April 1878. 2 Yasmine Benquiran, born about 1884. Death: October

1906, Chorlton, Lancashire: Ancestry archives.

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000272/18780426/035/0003

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?newspaperTitle=Manchester%20Times


61

Zassamein Benquiran, a Moorish lady, died under

tragic circumstances at Parkfield Street, Rusholme,

on Wednesday. The husband of the deceased, Dris

Benquiran, carries on the business of a shipper in the

city. The evidence showed that Mrs. Benquiran, who

had only been in England five months was a very

excitable person. On Wednesday she had some

words with a servant employed at the house, and it

was alleged that the servant struck her, but this was

denied by the servant, Jane O’Connor. Later, Mrs.

Benquiran was found dead in the kitchen, having

hanged herself with a rope fastened to a hook at one

end of the ceiling.1

A few years later, in 1882, Larbi Bengelun,

Mohamed Benani and his son, Taher, appeared in a

court in Moss Side under the charge of having assaulted

Francis Sommerville, an upholsterer, when he came to

Benani’s residence at 40 Derby Street, Moss Side, to collect

his payment for having repaired a mattress. The plaintiff

accused the three “Moors” of having attacked and beat him

with umbrellas, breaking two upon his head, and cutting his

lips. In their defense, the Moroccans said that Sommerville

had overcharged them 7s above the price of 10s initially

agreed on and, upon refusing to pay, he commenced the

attack on Benani’s son with the help of his assistants. Taher

lost his watch in the scuffle and his father showed the court

bruises on his body and a loose tooth as a consequence of

Sommerville’s assault. The Moorish defendants spoke

1 Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser,

27 October 1906.


62

through an interpreter and the papers noted that Bengelun

“caused some amusement by frequently answering the

questions before they had been translated to him.” Benani’s

housekeeper, Kate Cullen, and two English boys from the

neighbourhood gave their testimonies in the Moroccans’

favour. The bench fined Sommerville 20s and.

The Moroccans must have been pleased with the

British judicial system. However, the press commented

on their behaviour, condemning their “brutal

assault” as being consistent with their nature and “the

precepts of the Koran, being Mahometans, or following their

own natural instincts.” “From first to last,” one of the papers

concluded, “the two Benanis and Bengelun acted like ‘regular

Turks.’”1

8. MOROCCAN MANCHESTER MERCHANTS AND BRITISH WOMEN

In British literature, Othello’s countrymen are routinely

portrayed as having an uncontrollable fondness for white

women.2 However, when real Moroccans actually came to

British lands, they evinced little interest in white women.

Most of the Moroccans who immigrated to Manchester were

accompanied with their own native spouses. In most cases,

1 The Manchester Guardian, 20 January 1882.

2 In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the Prince of

Morocco travels to Venice in the hope of winning the hand of the

fair Portia. In Penelope Aubin’s Count Albertus (1728), Eliza

Haywood’s The Fruitless Enquiry, and William Chetwood’s The

Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle (1726), North

Africans have a passionate desire for white women.


63

they were newly wedded couples. When they eventually

married outside their nation they usually chose their brides

from Islamic countries. Thus, Taleb Lazarac and Hadge

Gamoon took Egyptian wives, Abdelmaged Tazzi’s bride

was Turkish, named Meloka, while Hadj Lahlu married an

Ethiopian woman named Fatima.

22. Abdelmaged Tazzi and Meloka, his Turkish

spouse, born in Constantinople

23. Hadge Gamoon and Taleb Lazrak and their

Egyptian spouses

For the Fassi merchants, being mostly from middle and

upper class families, social hierarchy, class respectability,

and sense of racial and religious superiority were paramount

social and cultural values.


64

Ben Ahmed, a returnee from Manchester, told his

audience in Fez:

that in England the women were shameless. They

went about unveiled and showed their mouth to

everybody. Certainly there were some that wore

veils, but then you could see through the veils, and

they were only worn to prevent men from kissing

them in the street.1

Hence their avoidance of taking white brides. Such an

attitude is expressed by Mohamed Barrada, a Fassi merchant

in New York. He charmed American ladies with his exotic

looks and says, “wherever I went in that city I was taken for

Rudolph Valentino. I was pursued on all sides.” He received

letters from them in which they vented their passion for him.

To avoid their harassment Barrada fled to San Francisco. “I

have told women repeatedly that I am in this country

exclusively for business.”2

The only known cases of a Moroccan merchant

marrying an English woman are Hadj Larbi Guesus and

David Bensuade. Guesus was a widow, aged 51 when, in

1886, he married a much younger women, 26 year-old Alice

Agnes McAyoy of Blackpool. She bore him a daughter, Lulu,

born in 1887, and a son, Randolph Sidi Mohamed, born in

1892.

1 Harris, With Mulai Hafid at Fez, p. 168.

2 “Girls Harass Royal Moor,” Los Angeles Times, 15

September 1924.


65

David Bensuade was a Jewish businessman from

Essaouira trading in London.1 In 1884, he married Miss

Violet Cameron, a Manchester stage actress who performed

in the musical comedy Morocco Bound with great success.

Bensuade met her in Manchester during one of her

performances. Here is his account of himself and of his

marriage:

He said he was born on the West Coast of Africa,

but had lived in England since he was five years old.

He first saw Miss Cameron in Manchester, and

became acquainted with her in 1881. He was then

carrying in on business in the city, and had income

of over 2000l a year. They were married in 1884,

after a courtship lasting about three years. He gave

her valuable presents.

Bensuade adds that “when he married, his wife was

engaged at the Comedy Theatre. She had then a small salary

and he used his influence and capital in furthering his wife’s

professional interest.”2

1 David Bensaude naturalized British on 5 September 1878.

2 Hawke’s Bay Herald, 14 April 1888. The contemporary

press compared their intermarriage to that of Othello

with Desdemona, wishing there would be no Iago in the

family. Bensuade found that his wife had a lover and led a

tempestuous life with her, especially during her tour in America.

See The Sun, 28 September 1886 and Syracuse Daily Standard, 2

October 1886.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=CL1.HBH&e=-------10--1----0--

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=HBH18880414&e=-------10--1----0--

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66

24. Miss Violet Cameron, a Manchester actress, wife of

Moroccan businessman David Bensuade

The available historical archive indicates that, while

merchants shunned white women, Moorish acrobats and

circus performers who toured Britain did not demonstrate the

same aversion. These artists came mostly from rural areas.

They were often of modest means and could not afford to

wed native women and pay their travel expenses to the West.

So they willingly married white women, in most cases from

the entertainment profession whom they had met in circus

and theatrical venues.

For instance, Ben Mohamed was married to Charlotte.

They came in England from France in 1847 to perform with a

troupe of acrobats. The troupe included Mohamed Ben Hagy

and his French wife Marie, and Mohamed Bensaib and his

with his wife Josephine, his daughter Zara and son Ahmed.

The wife of Moroccan acrobat Hadj Abdullah Mohammed,

who performed in England in the early twentieth century, was


67

Hungarian, Paula Mahanes, who bore him three kids:

Maryam, Fatma, and Ali. Mohamed Jamai was married to an

English woman called Jane, and Mohammed Bencacem to

Clara Casey.

The last case arouses a lot of interest. Bencacem met 17

year old Clara in Manchester while he was performing with a

troupe of Moroccan acrobats at the Ardwick Empire Theatre.

Clara, daughter of an engineer from Salford, was engaged as

a dancer at the Queen’s Theatre. She fell in love with,

converted to Islam, and married a Moroccan, Bencacem, on

March 17th

, 1905. The marriage was solemnized in Liverpool

according to Muslim rites at the first mosque established in

England,1 and the ceremony was presided over by Sheikh

Abdullah Quilliam, a Briton who had embraced Islam in

Morocco in 1887.2 A newspaper reports that “There was a

striking scene at Liverpool in a Mosque when a young

English bride renounced Christianity for Islam on her

marriage to a Mahometan. The parties were Mohammed Ben

Bilcassim and Miss Clara Casey, both of whom were

members of the Achmet Ibrahim music hall troupe.” 3

1 The Liverpool Mosque was established in 1890. It included

a madrassa, library, and a printing press. 2 In 1884, Henry Quilliam travelled to Morocco where he

was exposed to Islam in Fez and converted to Islam under the

name Abdullah Quilliam. Upon embracing Islam, the Sultan

awarded him the title of an honorary alim. After his return to

Liverpool, he established a mosque and began spreading Islam in

Britain. Occasionally, he travelled to Manchester to perform

funerals and marriages for the Muslim community. 3 New Zealand Herald, 13 May 1905.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=0y5m97ZEHgAcnM&tbnid=q_QqoaJCINACxM:&ved=0CAMQjhw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arthurlloyd.co.uk%2FManchesterTheatres%2FArdwickEmpireTheatreManchester.htm&ei=EK_yUta1IvOZ0AXj0IHADA&bvm=bv.60799247,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNECe3UcKihUhnmVn1exNqm-6cxmcQ&ust=1391722627110886



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68

25. Wedding Presided by Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam at

Liverpool Mosque, 1903

26. Miss Clara Casey


69

After the wedding, Clara accompanied her Moorish

husband to Tangier and, following a misunderstanding, she

wrote to the British Council complaining of mistreatment.

The British, American, and Australian newspapers

capitalized on this problem, printing articles with sensational

titles such as “A Modern Desdemona,” “Sensual Abduction:

A Moor and an English Girl,” “English Woman in Harem of

a Moorish Acrobat”. Some papers reported that the Moor

kidnapped and forced an English girl to wear the Muslim veil

and confined her in his polygamous harem. The papers

pressed the Foreign Office for her immediate release. Acting

British Consul summoned the groom to the Consulate in

Tangier and angrily accused him of having unlawfully

married and abducted Clara Casey to Tangier and urged him

to send her back to her parents and pay her travel expenses.

Furious, Bencacem flourished a gun, for which he was

arrested and incarcerated.1

Upon her return to England, however, the Moor’s bride

denied the newspapers’ reports about kidnapping and abuses.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, she declared that “she loves

him still, and will go to him as soon as he is released. She

returns to England shortly to fulfil as engagement with a

Moorish troupe.”2 Another newspaper writes:

1 For more on the story of Clara Casey and her Moorish

husband, see Layachi El Habbouch, “Moroccan Acrobats in Britain:

Oriental Curiosity and Ethnic Exhibition,” Comparative Drama, 45: 4

(2011), pp. 381-415. 2 Auckland Star, 15 July 1905.


70

It was during her theatrical career that she first met

her Moorish husband at Salford. They quickly

became intimate, and it was at her own suggestion

(made to please Bulkhassan) that they proceeded to

Morocco. But a few days in Tangier convinced the

girl … that Morocco was not a desirable dwelling-

place. Arrangements were accordingly begun by her

husband for her return to England. There was never

any suggestion of making her wear Mussuilman

women's clothes. … “I am very sorry,” concluded

Miss Casey, “that the trouble with my husband

ever arose. In fact, I wish I were back with him

now.”1

The Wanganui Herald stated of on August 7th

, 1905,

that “She expected that when he was released from prison he

would again come to England. It was not true that there was

anything like kidnapping in connection with her journey to

Tangier.”2

There is no evidence of a reunion between the

Moroccan acrobat and the Manchester actress.

9. MOORISH WOMEN IN MANCHESTER DIASPORA

The Manchester trade prompted Moroccan women to

participate actively in the diaspora experience, “cross water,”

accompany their spouses on their long voyages, and reside in

utterly foreign lands.

1 Grey River Argus, 12 August 1905.

2 Wanganui Herald, 7 August 1905.

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71

In their homeland, having come from aristocratic

backgrounds, these women were accustomed to a life of

luxury and affluence. They always had several maids at their

service whom they often took with them when relocating

abroad.

And it is indeed of great historical significance to

observe a pattern in the case of Moorish servant girls: they

sailed between their native country and Britain without male

companionship.

On February 20th

, 1915, for instance, three Moroccan

women embarked from the port of London on board the ship

Morea to Morocco: Zaidah Benquiran, housemaid, 30 years

old, born in 1885; Aycha Hassan, cook, aged 32, born in

1883; and Amber Benabdallah, housemaid, 22 years old,

born in 1893.

On March 19th

, 1926, Miss Zahra Bent Omar Tazzi, 25

years old, servant, residing at 17 Parkfield Street, Rusholme,

sailed from London to Casablanca on board Ranpura.

Miss Elghalya Benabud, 18 years old, and Miss Zorah

Bengelum, aged 14, servant, sailed from England to Morocco

on board the ship Arabia on December 19th

, 1914.

Djaip Fathma Thoura, servant to Guessus, aged 29, left

for Morocco in 1926 with 11-year-old Guessus Azouz Ben

Mohamed, of 422 Moss Lane Manchester.

On 13 April 1935, 30-year-old Tahra Guessous, nurse

by occupation, was travelling alone, first class, on board the

Viceroy of India from London to Tangier.


72

27. Elghalya Benabud and Zorah Bengelum sail back

home on board the Arabia, 19 December 1914

28. Zahra Bent Omar Tazzi sails from London to

Casablanca on board Ship Ranpura, 19 March 1926

29. Elarbi Bengelun, his wife and children sail back

home on board the Viceroy of India, 13 April 1935


73

Such examples of Moroccan female journeys in the

absence of males are bound to challenge conventional

perception of Oriental gender.

More often, instead of bringing their own native

servants, the Moroccans found it cheaper and more

convenient to hire white women as maids. The late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries’ English censuses indicate that

Moroccan households in Manchester often had more than one

white maid.

Name Servant, age & place of birth

Dris Benane Kate Donallin: 28, Ireland

Ellizabeth Blattan: 18,

Manchester

Taher Benane Kate Cullen: 40, Ireland

Benasta Benaki

Annie Whitehead: 14,

Manchester

Alala: 48, Morocco

Larbi Bengelun Martha Gregg: 21,

Mobberley, Lancashire

Rachel Bengelum: 30,

Ramsgate, Kent

Abdelkader

Benhamo

Kate Walsh 29 Manchester

Haghi Elofer

Mae Milligan: 22, Scotland

Sarah Radan: 13, Manchester

Saleb Lazarac Hannah Dringad: 23, Ireland

Hadie Lehluh Catherine Beatty: 33, Ireland

Abdelimaged

Tazzi

Margaret Challenor: 21

Lyth Hill, Shropshire:

England

30. British domestic servants in Moroccan households


74

Exempt from housekeeping duties, Moorish women

had plenty of time to exchange visits and socialise, especially

during the day when their spouses were busy at work. On

these occasions they used to wear their magnificent kaftans,

jewellery and make-up. Young Abdelmajid vividly

remembers these female gatherings at his home on Parkfield

Street:

Women used to visit my mother during the day and

their noise rose while speaking so loudly that you

could hear them from the street. Their voices rose as

though in dispute, which seemed incompatible with

the laughter that interspersed with their

conversation, which bewildered me.1

One day a young Moorish girl was tempted to try on

English clothes. Abdelmajid writes:

I beheld one of them joke by wearing an outfit that

resembled Angie’s. She became so fascinating and

enchanting, and resembled her in beauty, elegance

and attractiveness. Hence, I discovered the secret of

a beauty that had been veiled to me by curtains and

dyes, and it grieved me deeply to see her back in her

traditional apparel.2

Though intra-Moorish visits were frequent, Mrs

Benjelloun seemed to interact more often with the Paternos,


2 Ibid., p. 32.



75

her English neighbour of Greek origin, than with her

countrywomen. Mrs Benjelloun spoke English very well as

revealed in her conversations with the policeman who came

to inform her that her son, Abdelmajid, had reached school

age, and with the school headmistress when Mrs Benjelloun

requested her to exempt her Muslim son from attending

Christian prayer sessions. The fact that even the wives of

merchants spoke English indicates great exposure to English

life and culture and a far-reaching adaptation to the

conditions of diaspora.

While discussing Moroccan femininity in diaspora it is

quite telling to mention that Mrs. Benjelloun often visited the

Paternos family and went in the company of her child and her

foreign female neighbours to the theatre to watch an evening

performance. On these occasions she wore European clothes

and went out unveiled.

The fact that the spouses of émigrés, like Mrs

Benjelloun, went out dressed in European fashion is recorded

by Roger Le Tourneau in his book s a ant le protectorat.

Le Tourneau affirms that some Fassi women who

accompanied their spouses to Europe “used to wear European

clothes and lead the life of the women of the country where

they existed, and upon returning back to Fez they resumed

their traditional way of life.”1

Sometimes when business or family matters urgently

called husbands to travel back home, spouses were often left

behind in Manchester as in the case of Mr. Benjelloun who

travelled with his son, leaving behind his wife and young

daughter.

1 Roger Le Tourneau, s a ant le protectorat, pp. 445-446.




76

Living in exile inevitably necessitated a significant

degree of adaptation and acculturation. Moroccan women

enjoyed new freedoms in Manchester unavailable in their

conservative society at home.

Trade prompted Moroccan women to leave their

homeland and participate in the global movement of people

in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. This

gained them the acquisition of foreign languages and

permitted them to encounter new cultures and people. Their

diaspora experience fashioned for Moorish women new

freedoms and new identities.

10. HOW ENGLISH TEA BECAME

MOROCCO’S NATIONAL BEVERAGE

One of the most important influences that the

commercial encounter with Britain had on Moroccans was

the shift from drinking Turkish coffee to drinking English

tea. British and French redemptionists, ambassadors , and

merchants introduced tea to Morocco in the late seventeenth

century. Moroccan potentates and high state officials first

consumed it before gradually becoming a popular beverage in

the second half of the nineteenth century. In this respect, Al

Arbi Al Masgrifi writes in his book Nuzhat al Absar li Dawi

al Maarifa wa al Istibsar:

this beverage is now current in the habit of people so

that it is offered to the guest, and if it happens that

he is offered food without tea, he would assume that

he has been mocked...and for this reason it is used

by the noble and the layman, the wealthy, the poor

and the destitute. Destiny has ushered its utensils


77

into every house and its tray roams in urban as well

as rural areas.1

During his travels in Morocco, Gabriel Charmes

observes that

the drink one is offered everywhere is tea, as though

the English have been there! .... But it must be added

though, as an attenuating circumstance, that the

Moroccan tea, which is called ataïy, is seasoned with

mint called nânây and verbena called luisaj... which

prevents it from resembling the detestable English

tea.2

Making and drinking tea became quite an elaborate

ceremony that required special paraphernalia: a teaset of

Manchester manufacture. The silver-plated teaset includes

tea-tray, teapot, kettle, samovar, boxes of tea and sugar, and a

perfume-burner. Owning a Manchester silver teaset and

serving tea in a teapot (barrad) bearing the hallmark of

Richard Wright (whose name entered the Moroccan

language as rayt or ryde) of Manchester in Arabic and

English evolved into a mark of social refinement, elegance,

and prestige.

Emily Keene, the English wife of the Shareef of

Wazzan, provides a description of the Moorish tea ceremony:

1 Abdalahad Sabti and Abdrahman Lakhsasi, Mina Shay ila

Atay: Al Ada wa at-Tarikh (Rabat: Faculty of Letters Press, 1999),

p. 110. 2 Gabriel Charmes, Une ambassade au Maroc Paris:

Calmann L vy, 1887), pp. 78-79.

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78

Fatimah, dressed in gala costume, brings in a low

table, and her second follows her when she returns

with a tray laden with tiny cups and saucers, in the

centre of which are two teapots, to be used for black

and green tea respectively. On another small table is

a tray containing two tea receptacles, or caddies.

These may be of glass, silver, or ordinary tin

canisters. A large glass bowl or dish containing

about two pounds or more of sugar, a glass

containing mint, lemon, verbena, wild thyme, or

some other herb, a glass or any fancy box containing

slips of scented wood, a plated or brass incense-

burner, two plated scent- sprinklers, containing rose

and orange flower water, and a tumbler with a long-

handled silver spoon in it, and also used as slop-

basin, complete the equipment.1

1 Emily Keene, My Life Story (London: Edward Arnold,

1911), p. 92.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/my-life-story/oclc/221316475&referer=brief_results


79

31. A wealthy Fassi lady uses Manchester tea

utensils to make tea

32. Wealthy Moroccans posing before Manchester tea

paraphernalia


80

Like many travellers to Morocco, Budgett Meakin

became fascinated with the elaborate ritual of making tea:

Before the host or his deputy there is placed on the

ground a large brass tray on which are arranged

many more tiny glasses and cups ... with a pear-

shaped metal tea-pot, one long-handled spoon, and a

tumbler larger than the rest, wherein is now a bundle

of mint, verbena or lemon thyme…. Then comes in a

steaming samovar of brass — quite the Russian

article, — a painted tin tea-caddy, and a basin of

chunks of loaf sugar, broken with a hammer

specially kept for the purpose. The operator having

measured a certain amount of the tea in his hand, it

is placed in the pot, and a little hot water is poured

on to wash it lest the Nazarene dealers should have

added colouring, for it is almost always green. This

being quickly poured off, the pot is filled with sugar,

and the water is added. After a minute or so sprigs of

mint are placed under the lid, with the stalks

protruding, and it is left a few minutes to brew.

Tasting a little in a glass, the host pours back what

remains, and if need be adds one or other of the

ingredients, proceeding to fill the glasses and cups.

This is performed in a specially graceful manner,

bending forward each time, then rising and almost

replacing the pot on the tray before repeating the

operation. Passing the glasses one by one to the

guests, the most honoured first, these hold them by

the top and bottom between the right fore-finger and


81

thumb, and take the longest and most audible sips

they can.1

Tea quickly became the national beverage and poets

sang poems in its praise. Abd Salam az-Zamouri al Fassi

(died in 1862) devotes a poem to the British beverage:

Praise be to God who blessed us with every

delicious victual

And with every beverage pure and sweet as

clouds of rain

Such as the golden London tea on a sparkling

tray.

Sorrow departs from he who drinks it

And his breast abounds with joy.2

The poet goes on to sing the virtues of drinking London

tea with Moroccan delicacies and pastries and the English

biscotti, which interestingly, the poet transliterates into

Arabic in his verse. However, the introduction of tea in Morocco

triggered a debate on whether its drinking was halal or

haram, permissible or prohibited. Ahmed Hamid ibn

Muhammed, a religious scholar from Chinguetti, wrote a

treatise entitled Forbidding Tea. He observes that there is

“no beverage or food as lovable as tea; the people crave for

it as they crave for women, nay with an even stronger

desire, and sing and compose verse about it.”3

1 Meakin, The Land of the Moors, pp. 82-85.

2 Sabti and Lakhsasi, Mina Shay ila Atay, p. 309.

3 Ibid., pp. 212-213.



82

Ibn Muhammed forbids the consumption of tea on

account of its promotion of promiscuity and the mingling

with women, “since the tea trade is conducted mostly by

women.” He goes on to condemn it as a drink that

encourages indolence and idleness, and diverts pious people

from attending communal prayers at the mosque. Like

wine, he claims, it is addictive and drunk according to the

wine ritual, causing the squandering of money and time,

and encouraging the frequenting of the wicked and

dissolute.1

Despite such strictures, English tea continued to be

drunk throughout Morocco. The Moroccans boiled Chinese

tea in teapots manufactured in Manchester and added their

own distinctive touch: fresh green mint, or shiba. The brew

became an integral part of Moroccan hospitality ritual that

developed in urban centres then quickly spread to rural areas,

with the Manchester barrad in its pear shaped form as an icon

of the nation’s hospitality.

11. THE LAST MOORISH MERCHANTS IN

MANCHESTER

In the second decade of the 20th

century, the Moroccans

of Manchester began experiencing financial difficulties as a

consequence of international competition. On March 17th

,

1923, the first Moroccan of bankruptcy case occurred and

was reported by The Manchester Guardian under the title

“The First Moroccan Failure in Manchester.” In this article,

Ahmed Amor, a partner in M. Bengelun’s Company,

attributes his failure to the “heavy depreciation in the values

1 Ibid., pp. 209-224.


83

of goods bought for future delivery, and bad debts in

Morocco owing to fluctuations in the rate of exchange.” 1

The

fluctuating prices were caused mainly by the influx of

Japanese goods in the Moroccan market, especially in cotton

and silk.

Hamed Boayad, a merchant of Manchester writes

optimistically in The Manchester Guardian that the

Moroccan authorities took measures “intended to protect the

market against unreasonably low priced goods and re-

establish a normal level of prices.”2 Nonetheless, the market

continued to be unstable and prices unsettled and irregular.

One could only hope for a miracle to save oneself from

bankruptcy.

An anecdote relates that a Fassi merchant based in

Manchester sent a shipment of cotton worth a million and a

half to Morocco, which he had insured with an English

company. On the way, the value of cotton fell by twenty

percent. The merchant prayed and vowed to buy a carpet as a

gift to Moulay Driss’s mausoleum in case the ship sank with

his goods. His prayers were heard and the insurance company

paid the full value of his cargo. He fulfilled his vow and

offered a magnificent carpet for the saint of Fez.3

A century after their arrival, in the 1930’s, the

Manchester Moroccans began their journeys back home for

good.4 In 1936, the Manchester City News comments:

1 The Manchester Guardian, 17 March 1923.


3Jérôme Tharaud, ‎Jean Tharaud and ‎Abdeljlil Lahjomri, Fès

ou les bourgeois de l'Islam (Rabat: Marsam, 2008), p. 67. 4 Halliday, “The Millet of Manchester,” p. 164.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1024&bih=522&tbm=bks&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me+Tharaud%22&sa=X&ei=GO_zUpr2O4qH0AX21oGoCA&ved=0CCwQ9AgwAA

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http://books.google.com/books?id=LtlKxs78URQC&pg=PA67&dq=Tharaud++F%C3%A8s+ou+les+bourgeois+de+l%27Islam+Manchester%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GO_zUpr2O4qH0AX21oGoCA&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA



84

Apart from the considerable material loss to the city,

Manchester has lost a body of good citizens who,

while retaining their oriental customs and attributes,

built up for themselves a reputation second to none

for honest dealing and clean living.1

By September 1936, “the last Moorish merchant in

Manchester [had] closed his office and left the city.”2

12. FAREWELL MANCHESTER: THE

BENJELLOUNS RETURN TO FEZ

In Fi Tufula return home of a Fassi family and the

emotions associated with it are described through the eyes of

a child. Abdelmajid became aware that his parents were

contemplating returning home when his father began

spending more time at home than at work and heard his

mother begging him to return to their country. The house

seemed enveloped in an air of mournful gloom. Abdelmjid

feared return but was reassured by Miss Millie who kept

telling him that “all Moors might return to Morocco, but Mr.

Benjelloun will remain with us forever... He is accustomed to

life here and will not be able to part with it.” She would also

say that “Mr. Benjelloun will not travel at all, he has become

a piece of this country.”3


2 The Manchester Guardian, 17 September 1936.

3 Benjelloun, Fi at-Tufula, p. 102 and p. 105.



85

But his mother continued to “hurl curses on this black

country that teemed with wicked people and infidels” and

implore his father to take her back to Morocco. Mr.

Benjelloun would only smile and change the course of the

conversation.1

With her health deteriorating, Mrs. Benjelloun’s

homesickness grew intense and so did her insistence on

return to her country. For her, Abdelmajid writes, “Morocco

was the Promised Land.” As for young Abdelmajid, though

Morocco fascinated him during his six weeks’ visit to the

country, “nevertheless,” he writes, “I don’t wish to return and

live there forever.”2

When it became obvious that the Benjellouns had

decided to return home, Millie went to Mr. Benjelloun and

implored him to leave Abdelmajid with her family so that he

could continue his studies in Manchester. But all she could

get was Mr. Benjelloun’s consent to let Abdelmajid spend his

last night in Manchester at her family home.

The next day at Manchester Victorian train station, the

Benjellouns and the Patermos − Abdelmajid does not record

the presence of any other Moroccans at their departure − said

their last farewell in tears. As the train started moving,

Abdelmajid looked out the compartment’s window and burst

into a poetic chant on England:

O wonderfully beautiful country! O land with which

my soul has been forever inextricably interwoven. In

many of your corners I have memories that will never

fade not even after long periods of time. O dancing and

1 Ibid., p .102.

2 Ibid., p. 103.


86

smiling resorts! O fields blooming green and rich of

colours! O black city with tall chimneys and bustling

streets! O organized and joyful gardens − O England,

the pasture of my boyhood − farewell 1

!

Taleb Bengelun returned to Fez in 1932, essentially to

fulfil his wife’s dream of going back to her native country.

Three years later, he travelled on a business trip to

Manchester with his 18 year old son, Abdelmajid. Like other

returnees he kept business connections with Manchester.

While visiting the city of Fez in the 1940s, Harold

Ingram met Ben Slimane, a former trader from his native city

of Manchester. Ben Slimane “had been sent there as a young

man to learn the shipping trade…. Now he was back in Fez

selling cotton goods to his countrymen.” Ingram learnt that

Ben Slimane kept business correspondence with Manchester.

Because the clerk who handled his English correspondence

was ill that day, he solicited Ingram to type some letters for

him. As such, his guest found himself “seated at the rickety

table pounding away on a battered typewriter letters and

invoices destined for my home town.” To many Moroccans,

Ben Slimane said, “the name of Manchester was far more

familiar than was London.”2

1 Ibid., p.113.

2 Ingram, The Land of Mud Castles, p. 38.

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87

33. Abdelmajid Benjelloun

34. Bengelun, his wife and child sail from London to

Casablanca on board the ship Morocco, 8 October 1903


88

35. Bengelun and his son arrive in London on board

the Mooltan, 18 June 1926

36. Bengelun and his son Abdelmajid arrive in

London on board the Carthage, 15 August 1935


89

37. Mohamed, Omar, and Abdelmajid Bengelun

sail back to Tangier on board the ship Rawalpindi,

14 August 1936

Another telling anecdote is that while visiting the

bazaar of Fez, Mr. Rider Nobles came across a Moroccan

who had been sent with eight merchants to Manchester to

select “the goods more suitable for wear in Morocco” and

who, during his stay; had learnt enough English to read

newspapers. The Moroccan asked him “How is my friend Mr

Gladstone.” Upon being informed that his good friend had

passed away, the Moroccan evinced great grief. The

mournful feelings of a Moor for his Manchester friend was

deemed newsworthy by the Aberdeen Journal, which

recorded the news for its readers.

Another meeting with an ex-Manchester merchant took

place in Rabat. In A Ride in Morocco among Believers and

Traders, Frances Macnab recounts:


90

In Rabat I met an old Moor who had been sixteen

years in England. He was able to chat quite

fluently in English. He told me that Manchester

was “really a very nice place, but he liked

Barbary better.” Nevertheless he added, with a

friendly nod, “the English are good people. They

do not push Moors about, like other Christians,

and I think they are a kind people. Yes, and I like

them even better in England than I do in

Barbary.” 1

While visiting Egypt in 1886, two Britons met an old

Moroccan acquaintance from Manchester. The “Moorish

gentleman” helped them find a hotel and gave them a tour in

the Egyptian capital. Moreover, he introduced them to his

uncle, a successful business-man who generously welcomed

the Manchester travellers to spend their afternoons in his

“fine Eastern mansion” and entertained them lavishly.2

Cheikh Tazi was a calico merchant in Manchester.

Upon his return, he was appointed Chief of customs at the

port of Asfi, then he was summoned by the Grand Vizier, Ba

Ahmed, to the court and promoted to “Amin ech-Ckhara.”

Following the death of the Sultan and formation of a new

government, Tazi was nominated Minister of Finance.3

The other side of the river Fez stands in a dense

garden, the house of a rich Fasi merchant, el-Hadj

1 Macnab, A Ride in Morocco, p. 164.

2 The Manchester Quarterly, vol. 6 (1887), pp. 331-332.

3 Eugene Aubin, Morocco of To-Day (London: J. M, De-Nt

& Co. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co, 1906), p. 176.


91

el-Madani el-Tazi. He left Morocco thirty-three

years ago, and settled first in Algeria, and then in

Manchester. He has just returned, with his fortune

made, and is completing his house, whose

colonnade, with its wrought plaster and painted

panelling, looks out over the whole Karaouiyin

bank and the mountains on the north of the city.

His long stay in England has given his features

and complexion a somewhat British appearance.

He remembers only a few words of English. He

knows it well enough, however, to explain his

position, and expresses his extreme satisfaction:

“Before, no money; now, plenty of money.”1

The story of a female returnee that could be traced is

that of Miss Kenza Bouayad. She was born in Manchester in

1925 to Hamed, a rug merchant, and Rhalia, who resided in

460 Moss-lane East, Manchester. Kenza returned with her

parents to Fez where she enrolled in the Adiyel School, an

educational institution for young Moroccan bourgeois women

established and run by two French women, Renée Ravès and

Louise Soulé.

Since her teenage years, Kenza “had assimilated

Western habits and wore Western clothes,”2 which exposed

her to the hostility of her Quranic teacher, faqiha Fatima

Alamiya. Alamiya persecuted and reprimanded her students

who adopted Western manners and customs and “targeted

1 Ibid., p. 269.

2 Hamid Irbouh, “French Colonial Art Education and the

Moroccan Feminine Milieu: A Case Study from Fez, 1927-1930,”

The Marghreb Review, 25: 3-4 (2000), p. 284.


92

most of all Kenza Bouayad.1 However, Kenza was

intransigent in her European attitudes.

the school authorities accused Fatima Alamiya of

sorcery and fired her. “Eventually, the French replaced Fqiha

Alamiya with Zhor Bint Ali Ben Souda, a fqiha from an

illustrious Fassi family, who, beginning on 1 August 1930,

‘seemed to be pleased about serving in the school’.”2

In 1940, Kenza married Mohamed Laghzaoui, a young

Fassi capitalist who made his fortune in real estate, chocolate

production, and bus transportation.3 Laghzaoui used

his business to finance the Istiqlal Party, a nationalist

party that advocated independence from France. Being

a militant and nationalist, Laghzaoui was often persecuted

38. Mohammed Laghzaoui, 1949

1 Her name is wrongfully spelled Bou-Zayad.

2 The Marghreb Review, p. 284.

3 Mohamed Laghzaoui was born in 1906. He studied at Fez

Moulay Driss High School.


93

by the French colonial authorities. Consequently, his wife

decided to immigrate to America. At the time Kenza was

pregnant and her sole dream was to have her baby born in

America to “become the citizen of a free country and enjoy

all the privileges denied to its father.”1

Because of the travel restrictions imposed on her

husband by the colonial authorities, twenty six year old

Kenza left in December 1951 for Gibraltar in the company of

British writer, Rom Landu, a close friend of her husband and

an advocate of Moroccan independence. In Gibraltar she

boarded the steamer Independence and sailed alone to New

York. In June 1952, her husband and two children, Aicha and

Mohammed, joined her by plane, flying Trans World

Airlines, from Lisbon. They intended to reside in America for

five years to gain eligibility for US citizenship.

Laghzaoui family resided in Croton Falls. Kenza bore

two of their children, Khalid and Souad, both of whom

acquired American citizenship. During his residence in

America Laghzaoui conducted commerce and politics,

campaigning for Moroccan independence. At the same time

of the birth of his daughter, Souad, in June 1956, which

coincided with the independence of Morocco, Sultan

Mohammed V summoned Laghzaoui to occupy the position

of Director of the Moroccan security forces.

Laghzaouis returned many times to the US. In June

1957, Kenza’s mother, Rhalia, who never relinquished her

British nationality, accompanied them to the USA.

1 Rom Landau, Portrait of Tangier (London: Robert Hale,

1952), p. 223.


94

13. NEW ROUTES, NEW EXPERIENCES

Because Anglo-Moroccan trade was in decline,

Moroccan merchants began exploring new business routes

and opportunities. On May 4th

, 1934, for instance, a

contingent of eight merchants, Taieb Guenouni and

Mohamed Ben Sliman (from Fez), Ahmed Bouziane

(Marrakesh), Abdenbi Ben Karaba, Abdellah Mohamed,

Hassani Mohamed, Ahmed Charkaoui, Abdelkrim Ben

Abdallah (Rabat), boarded the Italian steamer Conte Di

Savoia from Gibraltar to New York.

Another Manchester Moroccan who established himself

in America is Randolph Geussus. His was an extraordinary

biography.

Born on November 18th

, 1891, in Altrincham,

southwest of Manchester, from an Anglo-Moroccan

marriage, Hadji Elarbi Guesus and Alice Agnes, Randolph

came to Fez with his parents as a child. In 1926, he returned

to England and boarded a ship from Southampton to Boston

where he opened a leather goods store.

39. Marriage Certificate of Hadji Elarbi Guessus

and Alice Agnes, 1886


95

40. Birth Certificate of Randolphus Guesus, 1891

41. Hadji Elarbi Guesus’ Oath of Allegiance

He returned to Morocco in 1942 and worked for the

British Secret Service, then the American Office of Strategic

Services (OSS) recruited him because his “profound

knowledge of Morocco.”1 At the time, Operation Torch, the

American invasion of Vichy Morocco, was underway and the

OSS was actively working on a propaganda campaign to

1 Carleton S Coon, A North Africa Story: The Anthropologist

as OSS Agent, 1941-1943 (Ipswich, Mass.: Gambit, 1980), p. 12.

http://books.google.co.ma/books?id=3BFnAAAAMAAJ&q=coon++++%22rabat+radio%22&dq=coon++++%22rabat+radio%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=9e__UvuYM-Kv0QXOvoCADg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ



96

create a favourable environment the invasion. As an OSS

operative, one of Geussus’s important tasks was the

translation into Arabic of President Roosevelt’s message to

the Moroccan people into Arabic. Captain Gordon Browne

and anthropologist Carlton Coon, who were coordinating the

translation, first reworded the original English version of the

proclamation to make it sound Arabic. Coon explains this

process: “Browne and I would reword the English in a

more Arabic-sounding way, and Gusus would sing out an

Arabic poetical version and then write it down. Every time

Mr. Roosevelt mentioned God once, we named Him six

times; and the result was a piece of poetry that might have

come out of the Koran.”1 The English translation from

Guessus’s Arabic version reads:

Praise be unto the only God. In the name of God, the

Compassionate, the Merciful. O ye Moslems. O ye

beloved sons of the Moghreb. May the blessings of

God be upon you. … Behold. We the American

Holy Warriors have arrived. Our numbers are as the

leaves on the forest trees and as the grains of sand in

the sea. We have come here to fight the great Jihad

of Freedom. …. Assemble along the highways to

welcome your brothers. …We are not as some other

Christians whom ye have known, and who trample

you under foot. … Our soldiers have been told about

your country and about their Moslem brothers and

they will treat you with respect and with a friendly

spirit in the eyes of God. …If we are thirsty, show us

the way to water. If we lose our way, lead us back to

1 Ibid.


97

our camping places. Show us the paths over

the mountains if needs be, and if you see

our enemies, the Germans or Italians, making

trouble for us, kill them with knives or with

stones or with any weapon that you may have set

your hands upon.

Pray for our success in battle, and help us, and

God will help us both. The day of freedom hath

come. May God grant his blessing upon you and

upon us.1

The leaflet is filled with flowery Islamic rhetoric. It was

printed in thousands of copies and distributed secretly in the

Spanish Zone and later broadcast several times on Rabat

radio.2

Besides the translation of Roosevelt’s speech, Guessus

was involved in the translation of articles from the Arab press

for the Americans.3 He was also the principle contact of

the US with Moroccan tribes and worked closely with

Browne and Coon. During a meeting with them, we find

“Randolph Mohammed Guessus, drinking beer and eating

ham sandwiches in the U.S. consulate at Gibraltar.”4 Life in

the West had made him less observant of Islamic culinary

taboos.

1 Anthony Cave Brown, The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan:

The Biography and Political Experience of Major General

William J. Donovan (New York, N.Y.: Times Books, 1982), pp.

252-253. 2 Coon, A North Africa Story, p. 14.

3 Ibid., p. 15.

4 Brown, The Last Hero, p. 252.

https://www.google.co.ma/search?hl=fr&tbm=bks&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Anthony+Cave+Brown%22&sa=X&ei=mPH_UvK8KrLJ0AWJ0IGoDA&ved=0CC8Q9AgwAA

http://books.google.co.ma/books?id=AGVKAQAAIAAJ&q=%22sandwiches+in+the+U.S%22+Gusus&dq=%22sandwiches+in+the+U.S%22+Gusus&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=mPH_UvK8KrLJ0AWJ0IGoDA&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA







98

Mohamed Barada, a Fassi merchant born in 1904 in

Fez, landed on Ellis Island in about 1922. He set up a shop in

New York, explaining: “My father who is one of the

wealthiest men in Fez sent me to America to establish an

exclusive Moorish shop for the sale of Moroccan rugs and

other novelties.” He says “I like America. I am thinking now

of starting a shop in Hollywood. If I can find suitable

quarters, I’ll stay here as long as I live.”1

He set up a store at Hollywood Boulevard and imported

and sold artefacts from Morocco and other Arab countries.

He also rented Oriental costumes and swords to the motion

picture industry.

He says that his father had advised him “to marry a fine

American girl, preferably a blond, and settle down. But I

don’t want to get married. I don’t want to do anything except

attend to my business which is to sell Moorish rugs and

things.”2 He eventually abandoned celibacy and married a

rich heiress from Baltimore. The Los Angeles Times writes on

1 December 1933:

This Sidi Mohamed Ali Barada is a Moroccan who

has spent more time in this country than in his own.

In fact, he seems to have used Morocco mainly as a

place to be born in, for he went to school in Paris

four years, had a concession for Moroccan

importations in a great New York store, created a

flurry in Baltimore society by marrying Miss Isabel

McCormick Finney of Baltimore and has been an

American citizen for five or six years. A few years

1 Los Angles Times, 15 September 1924.

2 Ibid.


99

ago he returned to Morocco. “There I met the late

Motley H. Flint of Los Angeles,” Barada says. “He

liked me and made arrangements for me to come to

Los Angeles to establish a department in the Dyas

store.” At one time Barada had a chain of seven

Moroccan stores in the United States. Now he has

one on Hollywood Boulevard and one in San

Francisco. He avers that he would much rather be a

New World businessman than an Old World prince.1

Though based far from his country in Los Angles,

Barrada never dissociated himself from the concerns of his

country. He contributed several articles to American

newspapers to promote the image of Morocco, its

decolonization, and its democratization. In the Los Angeles

Times of April 12th

, 1943, he writes:

It is strange that the report of President

Roosevelt’s visit to North Africa gives so little

mention of the Sultan and other appeasers. Did the

pashas and Wazirs and merchants of Fez receive

him? … Did President Roosevelt see the starvation,

filth and sickness of the population or did he only

view the wonders of the palaces? I feel that we must

do away with the thought that the people of North

Africa are but heathens and savage tribesmen or

pirates of the Mediterranean, that the country itself is

merely a well-centered one richly endowed with

natural resources: therefore good for colonization

without regard for its people. We in America must

1 Los Angeles Times, 1 December 1933.


100

help to correct the corrupt form of government that

exists in all North Africa…. This is the ideal time for

America to help put democracy into practice all over

the world.1

42. Sidi Mohamed Ali Barada

1 “No Time for Tea Parties: Sidi Mohamed Ali Barada,” Los

Angeles Times, 8 March 1943. See also “'Now Is No Time for

Lambs: Sidi Mohamed Ali Barada,” Los Angeles Times, April 12

1943.


101

CONCLUSION

Evidently, reading the history and experience of the

Fassi merchants’ immigration to Manchester unfolds a

fundamental critique of many theses promoted by French

colonial historiography on Morocco and reiterated by some

postcolonial Moroccan historians. First the theory that, after

the decline of its maritime power and French conquest of

Algeria; Morocco became enclosed upon itself, fearing

interaction with the Christian world, is a fallacy. Second, the

process of modernisation in Morocco did not with French

colonialism, but almost a century earlier, with the discovery

of Europe by Moroccan diplomats, travellers, and merchants.

43. Moorish Arch built on the Liverpool Manchester

Railway in 1830. Its architectural design must have

reminded Moroccan merchants of their home town of

Fez.


102

The third theory to refute is that the liberation of

Moroccan Islamic femininity from traditional customs and

practices was impacted by exposure to French culture and

civilization. In fact, as it can be gleaned from this book, it

was initiated by the active involvement of Moroccan women

in and experience of European diaspora.

Moroccans, men and women, alike crossed borders and

became involved in international voyages. And with this they

participated actively in the global flow of goods, cultural

commodities, ethnic identities, and intercultural dialogue.

They helped usher modernity into a traditional Morocco and

shaped Moroccan global consciousness and plural identities.

Reading the history Moroccan migrant community

urges us to deconstruct French colonial scholarship on

Morocco and come up with new approaches and perspectives

on Moroccan social history and cultural identity.


103

PART II: ARCHIVAL SOURCES

1. MOROCCANS OF MANCHESTER, 1860S1

Early in the sixties as you passed along the business

streets of the City, you would suddenly come in sight of some

white turbaned individual, whose gay Eastern dress appeared

in such strong contrast to the sombre of the attire of all those

about him. At first the sight of one of these men in Moorish

grab was a very uncommon occurrence, and people would

stand and smile as one of them passed along. But now they

have ceased to be a wonder, and so they go to and fro and do

their business in their usual quiet way, and make their

purchases at the shops without more than perhaps a casual

glance from the passersby. When these Moorish pioneers first appeared as the

precursors of those who afterwards settled amongst us, their

numbers might have been counted almost on the fingers of

one hand; but after the first plunge had been taken, they

steadily increased in numbers, until at their full strength they

formed quite a compact little business community. My connection with them commenced with the first

arrivals, as they were purchasers of my class of goods, and

for this reason I became very friendly with them all. When a

new arrival came upon the scene he was always easily

distinguishable from the rest, as he would be seen shod with

Oriental slippers, to which he had been accustomed in his

own footwear was not serviceable in a climate like ours,

where a wet day would play sad havoc with those gay-

1 Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester, pp. 205-2012.


104

looking slippers without any heels; so one of the first lessons

to be learned by a new arrival was to get his feet encased in

boots with more understanding in their nature. Most of these Moors seemed to learn English almost as

quickly as they changed their footgear; or at any rate they

were soon quite capable of making a bargain, and able to buy

their goods at the cheapest possible prices, in fact bargaining

seemed their English grammar, and excellent use they made

of it. If for a short time you did succeed in petting a trifle

more margin on your sales to a newcomer, he very soon

posted himself up in matters, and you found out that,

however limited his knowledge of English might be, he

always knew enough to be able to beat you down in price. I think the first English house to introduce these

Morocco Moors in any number to the Manchester marked

was Thomas Forshaw, who then had his place of business to

in Norfolk Street. Here, if you had any business to transact

with any of these clients of his, you would usually find them

congregated in his entrance lobby, where there were benches

lining the sides, on which they would be seated, as it were, in

general council. It was quite an Oriental picture to see them

grouped around in their quaint picturesque attire, surmounted

by the white turban or the red fez. I believe they were not

entitled to wear the full white turban unless they had made at

least one pilgrimage to Mecca. If you had any

communication to make to any of their number you were

often obliged to make it in the presence and hearing of the

entire conclave; and as a rule there was disposition to keep

their transactions secret from each other, and at times they

would consult amongst themselves before the one in treaty

with you would make up his mind as to placing an order. At

times this was somewhat embarrassing to the seller, but their


105

manner of doing business was pleasant and easy enough

when you had once been admitted to their general friendship.

They first of all required to have confidence in your mode of

doing business, but having once had the “open sesame”

pronounced in your favour you could go in and out among

them and get along with them very comfortably. As the years went by, and their friends in Morocco

found out that their countrymen were doing so well at this

side, the numbers increased; but Thomas Forshaw gradually

lost his hold upon them, for the Moors discovered by degrees

that they could go into the market and buy in their own

names, thus saving the commission with which he charged

them. I am afraid credit was granted them too freely, and

were thus encouraged to trade beyond their means. However,

the consequences of this appeared later on, and in the

meantime the number of white turbans to be seen in the

streets of Manchester steadily and perceptibly increased. One of the first of these Moors to establish himself in

business on his own account was a man of the name of

Bengelun. He was a handsome man, although somewhat

short of stature, but for his height he was one of the fattest

men I had then come across. He seemed to carry a very

mountain of adipose matter in front of him as he came

paddling along the street, and swaying about from side and to

side; and you could not but sympathise with him as you saw

him panting for breath as he slowly mounted the stairs to his

office. After the first established council broke up little by

little at Thomas Forshaw’s, it seemed to naturally transfer

itself to the offices of Mr. Bengelun; so that if you could not

find your man at his own place of business you would nearly

always be safe in looking for and finding him at Mr.

Bengelun’s, where the bulk of them would be congregated


106

together, filling the rooms to over to overflowing, some

sitting, some reclining, whilst others would be squatted about

Eastern fashion, with their legs doubled up underneath them,

and here they would hold their midday palaver. These Moors

came from various quarters; Tangiers, Essaouira, Larache,

Casablanca, Fez, etc., and when they all got talking more or

less together, with their various intonations, accents and

gesticulations, it was really quite Entertaining to be in their

midst. Associated with these Morocco Moors were some of

their co-religionists from Cairo and Alexandria. Amongst the

latter was a Mr. Benani, a very clever, intelligent, capable

man of business. He also took quite a lead amongst them, and

after the death of Mr. Bengelun, the daily meetings used to be

held at his offices. Taken as a whole, these Moors were a thoughtful,

peaceable, kindly and sociable set of men. Mohammedans by

faith, one could not but admire and respect them for their

strict observance of all that their religion enjoined. Of course,

these are black sheep in every fold, but as a body of men they

set an example to many Christians of sobriety and religious

zeal, with which those who cam closely in contact with them

could not but be struck. During their long fast of Ramadan,

the most of them neither ate, drank or smoked during the day.

In their own country this was not such a serious matter as it is

with us, as in Morocco the days and nights are more nearly

equal in the summer months, when this fast takes place, than

is the case in England. Here they required to fast from about

three in the morning until about eight in the evening, which

constituted a great strain upon the system for many weeks.

This fast commenced with the new moon, and so strict were

they that they should not err as to the time for starting the

fast, that rather than make any mistake about the exact time


107

of the new moon in their own country, they would begin

fasting the day before. Many of the Moors who flourished here in the past

have altogether disappeared, many are dead, other have left

the country. Their names, too, would sound strange to

English ears, such as Luarzazi, Elofer, Benquiran, Lehluh,

Benabsolam, Dris and Benassi Benani. Benani and Tassi

were two of the most usual names amongst them and, I

presume, answered to Smith, Jones, and Robinson in this

country. Then there were such names as Gueasus, Lushi,

Meecoe, Bomar Larashe, Benabdislam, and Benmassoud.

The Bens were profile as the sons of many ancestors. Where

there were several of the same surname they were recognized

by some personal peculiarity. For instance, one man was

called Big Tassi, on account of his almost gigantic

proportions; and yet although he was large physically, he was

particularly mild and gentle-looking in appearance, but he

was not so soft-hearted that he could not drive a very keen

bargain. There was also Black Tassi, so called from his

swarthy complexion. He was as keen as a knife and as sharp

as a needle, but I am afraid his heart partook of the nature of

his complexion, for there came a day when he suddenly

vanished to the tune of “the debts I left behind me.” Meecce, bright and cheery in nature and disposition,

came with a long purse, and with the impression that his

purchasing power was unlimited. For a short period he was

quite the darling of the Manchester Market. He bought, and

bought; and we sold, and sold, and sold, just as dear old

Manchester loves to do. And we should all have continued

happy if, after the long purse became empty, we had not

wanted payment for his more than liberal purchases. Waiting

for those proverbial “remittances from the other side” is at


108

the best a dreary and unsatisfactory business. Yet our friend

seemed quite cheerful and happy, and if reiterated promises

and offers of fresh orders for goods could have only satisfied

creditors all might have been well. When these at length

failed to give comfort and contentment, our dear friend

betook himself to Morocco, so that he might try and hurry

them up on the other aide, but unfortunately his people

abroad declined to be hurried up, and so his departure was

followed by further delay, disappointment and eventually

loss. His long purse had not proved long enough for its

purpose, and Mr. Meecoe’s light-hearted pleasantries could

not convert themselves into bank notes, or even dollars,

which with wool was the usual mode of remittance, and so

the creditors had to whistle for their money (in vulgar

parlance), and that was the end of it. There was another man amongst these Moors so

diminutive in height that he might almost have passed for a

dwarf. He had a sallow complexioned face and shifting eyes,

and was not altogether attractive in appearance. He could be

very oily and sweet when he wished to get his own way in

some matter of business, but a very firebrand when anything

went wrong. The greater his passion the yellower he became,

probably he was of a bilious nature, which may have

accounted for his extreme irritability. I remember on one

occasion when I had to insist upon him doing what was right

in some transaction between us, the oily smile with which he

first tried to have his own way gradually disappeared as he

found he could make no impression upon me; a gloomy

scowl was succeeded by such a fit of rage that he actually

foamed at the mouth. When he had arrived at this stage, the

only thing of which he seemed capable was to point his finger

at his tongue and cry out: “Look at my tongue, look at my


109

tongue. Why I should do so I cannot say; the whole scene

was very comical and would have made a splendid

photograph. Slowly he cooled down and eventually retired,

but there was no look of love in those shifting eyes as he

passed out of my office. Such an incident was of quite an exceptional nature,

and for many of these Moors I had a very sincere respect,

doing their business as they did, in a quiet, almost placid kind

of manner. Some of this white-turbaned fraternity are still to

be found here, but their numbers have considerably

diminished. Bad government, coupled with the

demonetization of silver have well-nigh killed this once

prospering and promising trade. They were, and are, a class

of men who, if circumstances had favoured them, were

capable of developing a satisfactory business; but the

government of the Sultan of Morocco was so wretchedly bad

that it was impossible for them to make any headway. At

times official intimation would be received by one of their

number that he must return to act in the capacity of a tax

gatherer in his own country, a position very abhorrent to most

of them, as to make an existence in such a calling, after

paying the Government the sum for which the taxes had been

farmed to such an one, extortion, cruelty and robbery were a

necessity. When these calls were made upon them they tried

to get appointed as nominal agents for English firms, so that

they might claim the support and protection of the English

Consul abroad.


110

2. PICTURESQUE MOROCCAN COLONY

LEAVES MANCHESTER1

A Manchester merchant who had close connections

with the Colony for over forty years ... gave some interesting

details of the Moroccans, who conducted all their business

and foreign correspondence from their homes, in Arabic.

‘This community was well known in the locality by the

wearing of the red Fez, with which was worn a huge overcoat

which covered the native dress and invariably also was

carried an umbrella’, he said, ‘The womenfolk − mostly

black women, some of whom had been previously purchased

in the slave market, married and brought to England, as it was

considered “infra dig” to bring one of the real white wives to

England-in a short time mastered the language, much quicker

than their lords and masters. Having borne a large family,

many of the children born in Manchester enjoy British

nationality, and although returned to their native city of Fez,

other generations born in Morocco claim by right British

nationality, of which they are very proud and value its

privileges, although they may never probably see the country,

which through accident of birth they claim, and which will be

enjoyed for generations to come. The British Consul at Fez

has records of these numerous British subjects. These

privileges are unfortunately lost to the female sex when they

marry. The habits of this Moroccan Colony in Manchester

were not unusual, except that one of the gentlemen undertook

to see that the meat was provided in accordance with the

Mohammedan rites. A butcher in Rusholme had the

monopoly of supplying Welsh lamb, having in his yard a



111

small abattoir, and each morning this gentleman proceeded

with the killing of the required number of sheep. This same

gentleman also led them to prayer every Friday, the service of

which was held in a house in Parkfield Street. Their offices in

the city were mostly in the building known as Chepstow

House, at 32 Oxford Street, and many readers will no doubt

remember the following names: Canoon, Elhadjwy, Madhani

Tazi, Lazarak, Guesus, Benabdelsh, Benchocron, Benquiran

and Boeyed. These Moroccans enjoyed a name second to

none for honest and good citizenship. One of its members,

well remembered for his perfect speaking of English, was

looked upon as their chief adviser, and was the means of

settling many differences which arose in business. When any

merchant had recourse to legal advice, there was an old-

established firm in King Street (Messrs. Atkinson, Saunders

& Co) who can be termed to have been the official solicitors

for the Moroccan merchants, and the late Mr. Seville, a

partner of the firm, always managed to keep the Moroccan

merchants out of court. Despite the enormous business they

did in the city, it is not within memory that they ever had

recourse to the Assizes. I remember many times the kind

hospitality which I enjoyed. Luncheon consisted of many

highly spiced dishes, followed by Oriental sweets and a

quantity of fruit. Green tea served with mint helped to digest

the unusually heavy meal. Of course, food was only served to

the men, the womenfolk having their meals separately; and

what appeared most odd was that the dishes that went back

were those intended for the womenfolk.’1



112

44. Mogadore Market where Manchester goods were

sold

45. Trademark of a Moroccan merchant based in

Manchester (Abdelmajid Tazi?)


113

3.MOROCCANS ENJOY THE MANCHESTER

TURKISH BATH1

Grown men wearing European lounge suits and lolling about

among silk and satin cushions should really-have looked

ridiculous. Yet, inexplicably, host and guests were far more

acceptable to me in their new role than while displaying their

best party manners at a French dinner. Reclining among the

cushions, and sipping black coffee or mint tea, my

companions disclosed not only new personalities but also

new enthusiasms and interests. Politics were forgotten, and

were replaced by more pleasant topics, with personal

reminiscences predominating. These reminiscences were to

provide my second unforeseen experience of the evening, for

I could never have anticipated that England would play so

great a part in them. Now I found that several of my

companions had very intimate links with my own country.

The wife of our host was actually British, born in England,

where before 1914 her father had resided as a Moorish

merchant. From England had come most of the furniture in

his house, furniture that had instantly struck a familiar note.

The oldest member of the company had for many years been

trading with Manchester, and he regarded the fortnight he had

spent in London as the highlight in his life, and the Hamam in

Jermyn Street as the most memorable impression of that

sojourn.

1 Rom Landau, Moroccan Journal (London, Hale, 1952), p.

38.


114

46. Hammam on Jermyn Street, Manchester

47. Hammam on Jermyn Street, Manchester


115

His son, who was one of our party, was hoping to obtain a

French exit visa so that he might spend a year in England to

learn the methods of our textile industry. The forebears of

another guest had lived most of their lives in Birmingham.

Gradually England made room for Fassi gossip, and

conversation became rather more outspoken than I had come

to expect in Moorish society. Yet it never descended to that

level of bawdiness so easily reached in a convivial all-male

assembly. When at midnight I took my leave, I no longer felt

that I had been among strangers. That which I had originally

undertaken as a mere duty had developed into a most

enjoyable experience. I may not have added to my know-

ledge of Moroccan politics, but I had learned a fair amount

about the essential Moor. And all this, thanks to a collection

of garish silk and satin cushions.


116

48. Advertising poster for the Manchester Hammam


117

4. AARON AFRIAT APPLIES FOR BRITISH

CITIZENSHIP, 1874

I Aaron Afriat of N: 9 Catherine Court seething Lane in

the city of London Merchant do solemnly and sincerely

declare that I am a native of Morocco and a subject of the

Emperor of Morocco. That I am Twenty Seven years of age

and have been a resident in this kingdom continually for the

last Seven years and intend to reside permanently in the

United Kingdom of Great Britain. That I am unmarried –

That I am a Merchant and have resided and been engaged in

the aforesaid business for the last Six years, first at N: 3 Bury

Street Saint Mary axe in the City of London for three years

there at 56 Great Preseott Street Goodmans Fields, afterwards

at 31 Great Preseott Street Goodmans Fields both in the

Country of Middlex for Two years, afterwards at N: 2 King

Street Kensburg in the Country of Middlex and at N: 2

Henery Lane Bevis Marks in the City of London for one year.

That I am ... [unreadable] to the English Nation and am

therefore anxious to possess all rights, privileges and

capacities of a British Born subject and am desirous of

purchasing property in the United Kingdom – That I am a

person of great Loyalty and well .... [unreadable] Her Majesty

the Queen and Her government.


118

49. Aaron Afriat’s Application for British Citizenship,

1874


119

50. Sketch of a coffeepot with Arabic inscription

and the name of Aaron Afriat

51. Cenus of Aaron Afriat


120

5. MOHAMMED MUSTAFA DUCALY1

Un des Maures les plus distingués de la ville de Tanger,

Mohammed Mustafa-Ducaly, qui possède une fortune

considérable, entreprit un voyage en Europe dans le courant

de l'année 1845. Après avoir visité les grandes capitales,

avoir fait un séjour prolongé à Paris, il se rendit en Angleterre

où l'appelait une commande d'armes assez considérable pour

le compte de l'empereur du Maroc. Quand Mustafa Ducaly

eut terminé ses affaires à Londres, il voulut également

connaître une partie de l'Angleterre et principalement ses

grands centres manufacturiers. Ce fut dans ce but que, de

Liverpool, il se rendit à Manchester où il descendit dans un

des premiers hôtels de la ville. Il était accompagné, dans ce

voyage, d'un drogman et d'une suite de serviteurs assez

nombreuse. Mustafa Ducaly joignait à l'originalité de son

costume national les charmes d'un physique fort agréable, et

il n'en fallait pas tant pour attirer sur lui les regards. Aussi sa

présence à Manchester n'était-elle ignorée de personne, et,

chaque fois qu'il sortait, il y avait toujours aux abords de son

hôtel une foule assez nombreuse qui se montrait avide de

l'apercevoir. Comme ceci se passait en 1845, c'est-àdire il y a

dix ans, on comprendra facilement que, dans chaque ville où

il s'arrêtait, l'arrivée d'un tel personnage était un véritable

événement; car, aujourd'hui encore à Paris, il n'en faut pas

autant pour mettre souvent en émoi tout un quartier de la

capitale. Mustafa Ducaly habitait Manchester depuis

1 H. De T. D'arlach, Le Maroc Et Le Rif En 1856 (Paris:

Chez Ledoyen, Libraire-Éditeur, 1856), pp. 12-14.

http://europemaroc.com/files/Marco_et_le_Rif_en_1856.pdf


121

quelques jours, quand il reçut l'invitation de se rendre à une

fête brillante que donnait lord W. dans le somptueux domaine

qu'il possède à quelques lieues de la ville de Manchester. Au

jour fixé, un magnifique équipage, monté à la Daumon,

conduisait Mustafa Ducaly au domaine de lord W. A son

arrivée, il fut introduit dans un vestibule richement décoré,

qui donnait accès à un vestiaire où se tenaient quatre

huissiers. De ce vestiaire, on passait dans une vaste

antichambre qui conduisait dans un premier salon dont les

ornements étaient d'une extrême richesse. L'un des deux

hallebardiers placés à chaque battant des portes ayant

annoncé à haute voix: Mustafa Ducaly! le maître de la

maison vint à sa rencontre. Un silence général ne tarda pas à

succéder à l'animation qui régnait dans cette opulente

demeure, et chacun des invités porta ses regards sur le

nouveau venu, avec la lenteur involontaire d'une curiosité qui

se satisfait. La fille du maître de la maison surtout ne pouvait

se lasser de contempler l'étranger; elle ne tarda pas à lui

adresser plusieurs questions sur son pays, et une des

premières qu'elle lui posa fut celle de lui demander s'il avait

plusieurs femmes. Mustafa Ducaly ayant avoué qu'il en avait

sept, elle lui dit, avec une charmante naïveté, qu'il lui

paraissait impossible qu'on pût aimer sept femmes à la fois.

“Je regrette, lui répondit Mustafa Ducaly, que les lois de

votre pays ne vous permettent pas de devenir la huitième, car

vous comprendriez alors que je pourrais, au besoin, en aimer

huit.” Miss W., de plus en plus surprise de voir un Maure

s'exprimer avec une certaine élégance dans un idiôme qui

n'était pas le sien, ne put retenir son étonnement lorsqu'elle

entendit les derniers mots que venait de prononcer son

étrange visiteur. Donnant bientôt un libre cours à sa

stupéfaction, elle chercha du regard lord W., et, l'apercevant à


122

l'autre extrémité du salon, elle s'écria à haute voix: “Mon

père! ce Maure parle comme une personne.” Mustafa Ducaly

rit beaucoup et rit encore aujourd'hui de cette aventure

lorsqu'il la raconte. Il est vrai d'ajouter que la jeune personne

dont il est ici question, et qui porte à cette heure un des

grands noms de l'Angleterre, avait eu affaire au Maure le plus

astucieux du Maroc; car Mustafa Ducaly ajoute à une certaine

finesse d'être bien certainement le seul Maure un peu instruit

de tout l'empire. Quoi qu'il en soit, cet exemple seul ne

prouverait-il pas suffisamment que la Barbarie occidentale, si

peu connue et si digne de l'être, n'a été que fort

imparfaitement décrite, et qu'en Europe, on n'a reçu jusqu'à

ce jour, sur le Maroc, que des notions très-vagues.


123

52. Taleb Benjelun: One of the Early Moroccan

Merchants to Settle in Manchester


124

53. Diplomatic Mission for Moorish Merchants of

Manchester


125

6. A DISHONEST SERVANT GIRL1

At the Manchester County Police Court, a well-dressed

young woman, named Annie Holmes, was yesterday charged

with stealing a diamond ring, gold watch and chain, pair of

earrings, and other articles of jewellery from the house of

Mahomet Benani, a Greek merchant, residing in Parkfield

Street, Husholme. The prisoner had been employed as

domestic servant by the prosecutor, and on the 16th June last

left the house during the temporary absence of the family.

Next morning the stolen articles were missed from one of the

bed-rooms. A few days after the robbery the prisoner offered

the diamond ring in pledge at Liverpool, and said it belonged

to her brother, who was dead. The pawnbroker retained the

ring, and communicated with the police, and the prisoner was

apprehended in Liverpool about a week ago by Police-

constable Fitzpatrick. She was committed for trial at the

sessions.

7. A MOORISH MERCHANT AND

GLADSTONE2

A good story is told by Mr. Rider Noble attached to the

Moorish Court, who is at present in England. He was one day

in a bazaar in Fez, when he was stopped at one of the stalls

and addressed by a Moor in fairly good English. “How do

you do?” said the Moor. After being assured on the point he

began to ply Mr. Noble with questions about England. “And

1 Edinburgh Evening News, 26 September 1876.

2 Aberdeen Journal, 10 January 1903.


126

is my friend Mr. Gladstone?” was the one that most tickled

Mr. Noble. On being informed that Mr. Gladstone was dead

the Moor evinced great regrets. It seems that he had lived for

a little time in England. He was sent along with eight others

to Manchester to select the goods most suitable to wear in

Morocco, and while there he had picked up enough English

to read the newspapers.

8. BENANI AND BENJELOUN AT COURT1

An Affray at Moss Side. Mahomed Benani, Taher

Benani (father and son), Turkish merchants, residing at 40,

Derby-street, Moss Side, and Alarbi Bengelun, an Algerian,

living at 160, Lloyd-street, Greenheys, were charged with

having assaulted Francis Sommerville, upholsterer, Lloyd-

street, Greenheys. Cross summonses had also been taken out

by the two Benanis charging Sommerville and two other

men, named Hugh Stranaghan and Charles George Garland,

with having assaulted them. The following magistrates were

present on the bench:—Mr. C. Leigh Clare, Mr. J. Chadwick,

Mr. George Lord, Mr. C. P. Henderson, jun., and Mr. E.

Herford. Mr. Nash, barrister, appeared for Sommerville; and

Mr. Blair, barrister, for the Benanis and Bengelun.— Mr.

Nash said he thought after they had heard the evidence the

magistrates would come to the conclusion that the

defendants, either carrying out the precepts of the Koran,

being Mahometans, or following their own natural instincts,

had been guilty of a brutal assault. Mr. Sommerville had an

account of 17s. against the Benanis, and as his collector had

1 The Manchester Guardian, 20 January 1882.


127

failed to obtain payment he went for the money himself on

Saturday afternoon. When he entered the house he found the

two Benanis in and Bengelun. When he asked for payment of

the account one of the Benanis offered 13s., which he

refused. Subsequently the three defendants commenced to

assault him, and beat him about the head with two umbrellas

until they broke them; they were going to use a third when

Sommerville’s collector and a man named Stranaghan went

to Sommerville’s assistance. From first to last the two

Benanis and Bengelun acted like “regular Turks:” − Mr. Blair

gave, a different version of the affair. He stated that there was

a dispute between the Bennie and Sommerville with respect

to the cost of repairing a mattress, which was to have been

done for 10s. but for which Sommerville charged 17s.

Because they refused to pay that amount Sommerville

commenced an assault on the Benanis in the lobby of the

house, and was joined in that assault by both Stranaghan and

Garland. Sommerville gave evidence in corroboration of the

statement made by Mr. Nash. He said the younger Benani hit

him first, and then the others attacked him using umbrellas on

him with such force that they broke them. He was hurt on the

head, and his lips were cut. His injuries were dressed on the

following day by Mr. A. Chambers, surgeon.—Hugh

Stranaghan, 150, Main Road, Moss Side, collector for

Sommerville, and C. G. Garland, traveller, 98, Cranworth-

street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, gave evidence on behalf of

Sommerville. Their statements went to show that Stranaghan

waited outside to see whether his employer succeeded in

getting the account, and that while he was waiting in the

street he was accosted by Garland. As they were talking

together they heard a noise at the residence of the Benanis,

and observed the door open. Strannghan saw the Benanis


128

striking Sommerville on the head with umbrellas; Garland

said he could see the umbrellas, but could not see the persons

who were striking.—Mahomed Benani and Taher Benani

gave evidence to the effect that Sommerville, finding he

could not get the 17s. he demanded, commenced to assault

Taher, and that then Mahomed Benani went to the assistance

of his son, who while in the lobby was also being attacked by

Stranaghan and Garland. The father showed a bruise on the

left temple, which he said had been caused by a blow from

Sommerville. He also said that one of his teeth was loosened

in the affray. The son asserted that his watch was taken by

someone during the struggle, and added that he received a

severe blow from Sommerville while he was in the lobby.

Both of these complainants gave their evidence in a very

excited manner. Alarbi Bengelun gave corroborative

testimony through an interpreter, though he caused some

amusement by frequently answering the questions before they

had been translated to him—Kate Cullen (housekeeper to the

Benanis) and two boys residing in the neighbourhood having

given evidence, the Bench imposed a fine of 20s. and costs

on Sommerville, and dismissed the other cases.

9. A BLACK SERVANT GIRL, FROM

TAROUDANT TO MANCHESTER1

I observed a little black woman of indeterminate age

confronting me.

“You come from Manchester, master,” she greeted me.

“I lived in Fallowfield— on Eger ton Road.”


Long, 1952), p. 39.




129

“Did you—my home is near there,” I told her. “How

did you come to be there?”

“My master bought me in Taroudant, beyond the Atlas

Mountains” she replied. “He took me to Manchester and

there I stayed for many years. Now he is dead, and I am back

here.”

Listening to her I could not help thinking how very odd

it all was, this girl, for girl she had been then, bought in the

slave market in the distant Sous Valley, taken to live in a big

old house in Manchester, then coming back to end her days in

Fez. Two worlds farther apart it would be harder to imagine,

and one wondered what these Moors, in their secret minds,

thought of modern civilization as typified by Lancashire?

Certainly there was more warmth and colour, more quiet

peace and beauty in Fez, than amid the dingy, squalid

buildings of the cotton towns.

10. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

WITH MANCHESTER1

While I sat on a cushion sipping it Ben Slimane

described commercial relations between Fez and my native

city of Manchester. A number of Moors from Fez, it seemed,

lived in Manchester, dealing in cottons for the Moroccan

market. Ben Slimane had been sent there as a young man to

learn the shipping trade, and with the Moor's ready facility

for learning languages had not only learned standard English

but had acquired a knowledge of Lancashire dialect as well.

Now he was back in Fez selling cotton goods to his


Long, 1952), p. 39.




130

countrymen. To many Moors, he said, the name of

Manchester was far more familiar than was London.

“Can you type?” asked Ben Slimane suddenly.

“I’ve used a typewriter since I was eight years old,” I

replied modestly.

“Do you want a temporary job?” he continued. “The

clerk who handles my English correspondence is ill and I

want somebody to do his job for a few days.”

“I am just the man you need,” I told him. “I know

typing and shorthand and writing letters is my particular

delight. Now just show me what you want me to do.”

Anxious to earn some money to keep me while staying

in Fez I eagerly listened to his instructions. Ben Slimane’s

business, I discovered, was not only extensive but extended

into some curious byways. Caravans distributed the cotton

goods to the various agents and traders located around Fez,

often making payment in figs and dates, grain or hides, so

that perhaps several transactions took place before a deal was

completed. So behold me a short time afterward seated at the

rickety table pounding away on a battered typewriter letters

and invoices destined for my home town. What an

incongruous picture it created in my mind, a vision of rainy

Manchester contrasted with this old inn with its cobbled

courtyard with haughty camels tethered there, and the high

red walls of Fez beyond. In my spare time I took advantage

of the situation to type out stories and articles for submission

to magazines in England.


131

11. MOORISH LADY’S DEATH1

At the Manchester City Coroner's Court yesterday the

Deputy Coroner (Mr. W. Sellars) held an inquest on the body

of Zassamein Benquivan, a Moorish lady, who died under

tragic circumstances at Parkfield-street, Rusholme, on

Wednesday. The husband of the deceased, Dris Benquiran,

carries on the business of a shipper in the city.

The evidence showed that Mrs. Benquiran, who had

only been in England five months, was a very excitable

person. On Wednesday she had some words with a servant

employed at the house and it was alleged that the servant

struck her, but this was denied by the servant, Jane O’Connor.

Later Mrs. Benquiran was found dead in the kitchen, having

hanged herself with a rope fastened to a hook at one end of

the ceiling.

Mr. Benquiran, in reply to the Deputy Coroner, said

suicide was considered “a very great crime” in his country; in

fact, it was so seriously considered that it was scarcely ever

heard of. The husband was not allowed to attend the funeral,

or take any notice of it.

The Deputy Coroner: I am asking you this to show that

the woman could scarcely have been in her right senses to do

this.

The jury returned a verdict of “suicide while of

unsound mind.”

1 The Manchester Courier, 27 October 1906.


132

12. MANCHESTER TRADE

LETTER FROM HAMED BOAYED1

To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian.

Sir,−Since you kindly published my letter of February 13

regarding “Japanese Goods in Morocco,” there have been

further developments.

The Dahir, which is intended to protect the market

against unreasonably low-priced goods and re-establish a

normal level of prices, may go into effect any day, and the

extra tax will immediately be added to the invoices.

Consequently most merchants are afraid to buy these goods,

and the banks are refusing to guarantee credit on them, as

they would obviously lose heavily if merchants were not well

established financially.

Therefore the trade in Japanese goods has fallen off

decidedly although the agents have dropped their prices still

lower in the effort to recover the lost business, for instance,

the striped drill mentioned in my last letter has declined from

4s. 3d. to as low as 3s. 10d., and the artificial silk material in

30-yard pieces from 10s. to 7s. The prospects at present seem

good for greater stability of trade on a reasonable basis of

values.

The report, cited in the letter signed “El Hak” in your

issue of February 21, that the Dahir may be rescinded is

without foundation, and emanated directly from the agents of

Japanese firms. The law is directed at no particular nation,

but as before stated only “endeavours by a proportional tax to

raise inferior-priced goods to the normal level on the basis of

equality for all.”



133

----Yours, &c.,

Hamed Boayed, Partner in Elarbi Boayed and Co. Fez,

Morocco, March 6.

13. THE FIRST MOROCCAN FAILURE IN

MANCHESTER.1

Ahmed Amor, a partner in the firm of M. and M.

Bengelun, shipping merchants, of 27, Minshun Street,

appeared at the Manchester Bankruptcy Court yesterday for

public examination. The debtor stated that he was the first

Moroccan merchant to fail in Manchester, and his solicitor

said he believed this was the case.

Amor’s liabilities were £71,524, and his assets £28,697

net, leaving a deficiency of £42,827. He attributed his failure

to “heavy depreciation in the values of goods bought for

future delivery, and bad debts in Morocco owing to

fluctuations in the rate of exchange.” He became a partner in

the firm in 1920. There were three other partners in Morocco,

and from 1921 he had controlled the Manchester end of the

business. It was not the Moroccan custom to book orders at

fixed prices, but merely to accept goods at prices current at

the date of delivery. The result was that when values fell

goods bought at high prices in Manchester had been sold for

less than cost price some months later. Customers had also

refrained from paying accounts in the hope of the exchange

improving to their advantage, and there were accounts to the

value of £50,000 outstanding, which would not realise

anything like this amount. The examination was closed.



134

14. A SENSATIONAL ABDUCTION:1

A MOOR AND AN ENGLISH GIRL.

A charge of abducting a Salford girl, named Clara Casey,

brought by Mr. Mitchell, the acting British Consul at Tangier,

against Ben Cassem, a travelling Moorish acrobat, has had a

sensational result. Mr. Mitchell summoned Ben Cassem to

the Consulate, and accused him of unlawfully marrying at

Manchester Clara Casey, who was under age, while he had a

wife living. He ordered the Moor to restore her to her parents

in England, paying the fare back, or else be brought before

the Governor for summary judgment. The Moor burst into a torrent of abuse, and after

refusing to obey, whipped on a revolver and pointed it at the

Consul’s head. A clerk attempted to grapple with the Moor,

but he was too quick, and fled. The clerk slipped out by

another door, and closed with him in the passage. The Moor

thereupon struck him on the face with the butt end of the

revolver, and escaped. He was chased by a crowd as he fled

down the street, flourishing the revolver. He was eventually

arrested and lodged in prison. The girl whom the Moor is accused of unlawfully

marrying is only 17 years old. It is said she was terrorized

into going through the ceremony, which was performed

according to Mohammedan rites. It appears that her parents

consented to the marriage, but repented afterwards. The

woman who says her Moorish husband has a violent temper,

and has ill-treated her on several occasions. She declares that

1 The Advertiser, 4 July 1905.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4937874/924549


135

she loves him still, and will go to him as soon as he is

released. She returns to England shortly to fulfill an

engagement with a Moorish troupe. A Liverpool

correspondent called at the office of Sheik Quilliam, and was

supplied with information as to the marriage ceremony. The marriage ceremony, according to the Islamic law,

has some peculiarities of its own which, if the greatest care is

not exercised, may easily give rise to misunderstandings

between a couple, one of whom is a European, and does not

understand Moslem customs. The Islamic authorities in England are fully alive to

these difficulties, and their marriage laws and customs would

certainly seem stringent enough in case of mixed marriages to

reduce misunderstandings to a minimum. Thrice have had to

be sworn by both parties that there is no impediment to the

marriage: thrice does the man swear that he is a bachelor, and

thrice does the woman swear that she has no legal tie against

the marriage; in addition to this the woman is interrogated

apart from her intended husband, the consequence and

meaning of the marriage contract are explained to her, and

finally they thrice swear that “without qualification or mental

reservation of any kind or what-ever they each, of his and her

own free and unfettered will and accord, agreed and

consented to intermarry one with the other according to the

Holy Law and undying faith of Islam”. In the case of the marriage referred to, it is stated that

the woman embraced the faith of Islam, and visited the

mosque in Liverpool on one or two occasions after the

marriage, and seemed quite happy.


136

15. THE MOSQUE MARRIAGE:1

CLARA CASEY TELLS HER STORY.

The Express correspondent at Tangier has interviewed

Clara Casey, the Manchester girl who is said to have been

terrorised into marrying Ben Cassem, a Moorish acrobat, at

the Mosque in Liverpool on March 13.

He telegraphed yesterday that the girl made the

following statement to him: “I am seventeen, and a native of

Manchester, where my parents and most of my friends live. I

have danced for five years in the pantomime at the theatre

where I first met Ben Cassem four months ago. Two months

afterwards I was married to him at the Liverpool Mosque.

Mrs. Quinlliam, the wife of the Sheikh, who was present at

the ceremony, told me that the marriage was perfectly valid. I

have shown my marriage certificate to the Consul, who has

taken a copy of it to send to the Foreign Office. I knew at the

time of my marriage that Ben Cassem had another wife and it

is I alone who am to blame for all this trouble. Ben Cassem

struck me and I wrote home. If I had not done that he would

not be in custody now and I should be with him. The Consul

wants to send me home, but I am Mahomedan and shall

return to Cassem as soon as he is set free.”

1 The Manchester Courier, 20 May, 1905.


137

16. MARRIED TO A MOOR: ROMANTIC

STORY FROM TANGIER 1

Particulars were given at Liverpool on Saturday of the

circumstances of the marriage of the Moorish acrobat to a

Lancashire girl, whom the British Consulate at Tangier is

reported to have demanded should be sent back to England. It

appears that the man is the son of a farmer, and the girl the

daughter of an engineer at Salford. In March last the man was

performing with a troupe of acrobats at the Empire Theatre,

Ardwick, and the marriage took place on the 13th March at

the Liverpool Mosque. The ceremony was performed by

Billal Quilliam Bey, chief of the Moslems of the United

Kingdom, who states that the marriage took place according

to Moslem rites. The man, as by Moslem custom, swore three

times before the ceremony that he was a bachelor, and the

girl stated privately that she was being married of her own

free will. She also said she was a theatrical artist, and that she

had become a convert to Mahommedism. Both seemed

happy, and promised to revisit the Mosque on their return to

England.

News from Tangier says: The English girl who has

been brought here by a Moor as his wife has been

interviewed. Her name is Clara Casey, and she comes from

Salford. She belongs to the theatrical profession. It appears

that her parents consented to the marriage, but afterwards

repented. Casey states that her Moorish husband has a violent

temper, and has ill-treated her on several occasions. She

1 Wells Journal, 1 June 1905.


138

declares that she still loves him, and will go to him as soon as

he is released. She returns to England shortly to fulfill an

engagement with a Moorish troupe.

54. Clara Casey: Bride of Mohamed Ben Belkassem


139

17.THE LAST OF THE MOORS1

Driven out of business by foreign competition, the last

Moorish merchant in Manchester has closed his office and

left the city this week, and with him have gone the remnants

of a picturesque colony of Moroccan people which for many

years lived in Parkfield Street, Rusholme. The forerunners of

this little colony came to Manchester over half a century ago,

and at one time there were some thirty families living in

Rusholme. They were quiet people, having their own social

life, and the men, wearing the red fez, were often to be seen

taking the air in Whitworth Park. As adherents of the

Mohammedan faith, they worshipped in a house in Parkfield

Street. As business men they had an excellent reputation for

straight dealing. They dealt exclusively with Sewell’s Bank,

afterwards incorporated into the Union Bank, and a well-

known Manchester solicitor, who understood their mentality

in a way few Englishmen could hope to do, became the

adviser to whom they always took their difficulties in the first

instance.

18. KENZA LAGHZAOUI IN AMERICA2

The Brewster businessman who recently assumed the

post of National Director- General of Police in Morocco has

the necessary background for the Job—he spent two years in

jail there. Mohammed Laghzaoui, a native of Morocco whose

wife still lives in Croton Falls, was imprisoned from 1944 to

1 The Manchester Guardian, 17 September 1936.

2 Chappaqua sun, 19 April 1956.


140

1946 because he was a member of the Istiqlal Party seeking

Morocco’s Independence from France.

“So you see he has some experience with police work,”

his wife, Kinza, laughs pleasantly.

Mrs. Laghzaoui expects to join her husband in June

after the school year is ended. She is not too eager to return to

Morocco.

“I certainly hope we’ll be back soon,” she says. “I feel

that this is our home and I want my four children to get their

education in this country.”

The wife of the Brewster businessman has some

unpleasant memories of her children’s education in Morocco.

“They had to attend French schools,” she says, “where they

were looked down upon. When they started going to school

here, they found that they were accepted and treated

55.Laghzaoui Family in America: Top, left to right:

Aicha, Mrs. Kenza Laghzaoui and Dafir. Front, left to

right: Aziz and Khalid


141

the same as American citizens. They love this country very

much.”

When the children return to Morocco, Mrs. Laghzaoui

will enroll them in an American school in Tangiers in the

International Zone. She would rather have them learn English

than French because she feels it is a more useful language to

go with the Arabic they already speak.

The Laghzaouis came to this country after they were

politely asked to leave Morocco. The request came when

Mr. Laghzaoui, then President of the National Chamber of

Commerce, made a highly critical speech about the French,

before the National Assembly in Morocco in 1950.

They settled in Croton Falls where they have won many

friends. Mrs. Laghzaoui, however, is often surprised at how

little they know about Morocco. She still chuckles about the

person who asked, “How far is it from Formosa?”

Mrs. Laghzaoui was born in England, but her parents

were from Morocco and that’s where she’s spent most of her

life. Her last visit to England was in 1938.

In February of this year, Mr. Laghzaoui went to

Morocco for a short visit just before the French protectorate

won its complete in dependence. While there he paid his

respects to an old friend, Mohammed Ben Youssef, Sultan of

Morocco, who is now busy trying to gain North-Morocco’s

independence from Spain. The Sultan offered him the post of

National Director-General of Police which he assumed March

23.

In 1955 Mr. Laghzaoui had entered a partnership with

Rexford J. Cole of Brewster. They erected a block of stores at

the intersection of Routes 6 and 22, known as the Cole

Building. Mr. Laghzaoui has named Mr. Cole his legal


142

representative in America, with full power of attorney during

his absence.

“And I certainly hope the absence won’t be long.” Mrs.

Laghzaoui says. “The job has no definite term of office and I

hope it doesn’t become permanent because I will be anxious

to return to my friends in America.”

The Laghzaouis have one daughter, Aicha, 14, and

three sons, Mohammed Dafir, 10, Ahmed Aziz, 6, and

Mohammed Khalid, 4.

56. Arrival of Mohamed and Kinza Laghzaoui and

their children to New York in June 1957


143


144

57. Correspondence making reference to Moroccan

traders based in Manchester


145

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